Pius XII lead the Catholic Church for 19 years: from 1939 until his death in 1958. Now the Vatican could possibly make 16 million documents from his pontificate available in 2015. This archive could help shed some light on some sensitive moments during his time.
MATEO LUIGI NAPOLITANO
Guglielmo Marconi University (Rome)
“Anticipation is high on the publishing of these documents on Pius XII, especially on understanding how the Vatican bureaucracy functioned in making decisions. One of those in particular is regarding helping the Jewish people.”
Many documents already show that parishes, convents and Churches protected the Jewish people when SS guards began arresting them in Rome and other cities in Italy.
Although it is known that the order of protection came from the Vatican, there is no written proof that shows it.
MATEO LUIGI NAPOLITANO
Guglielmo Marconi University (Rome)
“We have documents that the Jewish people were sheltered in Castelgandolfo, the summer residence of the Pope. I don’t believe the Pope wouldn’t have known that there were Jewish refugees in his own home.”
Thousands of experts met in Rome to analyze the role of Pius XII and the Catholic Church during World War II.
They hope that with the publication of these documents on his pontificate, the dark legend surrounding this Pope will clear up forever.
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
If the Vatican can rent out the Sistine Chapel to the Porsche corporation for a private dinner party and concert, there’s no reason it won’t accept a huge dosh donation to let every Tom, Dick and Harry rifle through its archives. Not mentioning any names, but the Vatican bureaucracy is a joke.
Speaking of the Secret Archives, I have a first edition, but couldn’t afford to buy the presentation volume of this book, which sold for around $30,000, and which is now ensconced in said Archives, but it really is a gem of scholarship. My son, a gold medal winning Dante scholar (and an agnostic, sorry to say) is entranced by it. Unfortunately, the first time he opened it, he turned to pages 104-105, being Pope Alexander VI’s 1493 Bull about the division of the New World between Spain and Portugal, whereupon he (Sonny) remarked that was probably why Dante consigned him to the eighth circle of hell, which is incorrect.
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Fair point. Normally (in the UK at least) such Archives of comparative importance would only be available to academics or research students/Fellows. However, if opening these Archives facilitates the Beatification of Pius Xll (though I suppose the postulators of his Cause would have already had access) then – the sooner the better.
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Then Dante would have been even cleverer than we knew him to be, JH, considering he died 120 or so years before Pope Borgia’s Bulls.
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My apologies, Gertrude. I wasn’t being snarky about Pope Pius XII, just about the Vatican. He was pope when I first set foot in a Catholic church at age 4 and then walked home a kilometre down the highway to tell my mother that I wanted to be a Catholic, to which she replied: “Over my dead body”. Have I told that story before?
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“[Dante]…died 120 or so years before Pope Borgia’s Bulls.”
True dat, Golden Chersonese, which is why I told Mr Cleverpants (my son) that he was wrong 😉
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These documents better clear the good name of Pius XII who should’ve been beatified ages ago but because of that hideous play The Deputy he was severely libeled as “Hitler’s Pope”. He was the right man in the right time…
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Yes poloperlib, I agree absolutely. It is more than time that the lies and falsehoods thrown against this saintly Pope, denying his valiant protection of Jews and other minorities persecuted by the Nazis, is cleared up once and for all. It is amazing how one play, “The Deputy” (plus John Cornwall’s “Hitler’s Pope“) could so have twisted the true facts surrounding the life of Pope Pius XII, fooling so many millions of people in consequence!
This is a good link: http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/history/800-000-saved-by-pius-xiis-silence.html
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I would like to suggest a book on the subject of Pius XII’s extraordinary role of saving Jewish lives “Pius XII: Artchitect for Peace by Sister Margherita Marchione of whom I had the pleasure to see and meet in person from a symposium on Italian/Jewish relations. I would like also to suggest to find the film made for TV “Pius XII: Under the Sky of Rome” of which I got Italian version and also it was aired very recently in English on ETWN. And how about this book:The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: Pope Pius XII And His Secret War Against Nazi Germany by Rabbi David G. Dalin.
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