Vatican City, Mar 4, 2019 / 07:33 am
Pope Francis announced Monday that the Vatican will open its archives on the pontificate of Pope Pius XII. Confidential files of the pope who led the Church during World War II will be made available next year.
"Serious and objective historical research" will be able to evaluate Pius XII's "hidden but active diplomacy" "in its proper light," Pope Francis said March 4. The pope said that the full confidential files, called a "secret archive," will be released March 2, 2020.
The pontificate of Pius XII has been often misunderstood. Critics have accused him of indifference to the plight of the Jewish people during the Second World War, despite several already public documents which show the pope's systematic efforts to assist Jews in Italy.
In the late 1990s, debate over whether Pius XII did enough to counter the Nazis reached a high point with the publication of the deeply controversial book, "Hitler's Pope," by British journalist John Cornwell. The book was highly critical of Pius XII, charging that he was culpably silent – if not an accomplice – in the rise of Nazism.