>More than 150 historians and researchers have signed up to access the Vatican archives of Pope Pius XII, which are poised to be unsealed, potentially uncovering new details about his record during the Holocaust.
Cardinal Jose Tolentino Calaca de Mendonca, the Vatican's chief librarian, told reporters that all researchers — regardless of nationality, faith and ideology — were welcome to request permission to use the Vatican's Apostolic Library, which will open the archive on March 2. Some Jewish groups and historians have said Pius, who was Pope from 1939-1958, stayed silent during the Holocaust and did not do enough to save lives. His defenders at the Vatican and beyond say he used quiet diplomacy and encouraged convents and other religious institutes to hide Jews. Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, a great defender of Pius, accelerated the process to open the archives ahead of schedule so that researchers could have their say.
One of the historians who plans to be here for opening day is David Kertzer of Brown University, author of several books about Pius' predecessors and their relations with Jews. In an email, Kertzer said the imminent opening of the Pius XII archives, and the light it will shed on the role played by the Pope during the war, had "generated tremendous excitement in the scholarly world, and beyond". "Much of historical importance will also become clearer for the postwar years, when the Pope, among other challenges, worried that the Communist Party would come to power in Italy and played a crucial behind-the-scenes role in blocking it," he said.
http://archive.is/IP5e1
