A hundred historians are preparing to dive into the archives that the Vatican will open on March 2 on Pius XII. The latter is considered the most controversial pope in history and is often criticized for never having publicly condemned the Holocaust.
It is a moment "decisive for the contemporary history of the Church and of the world", explained, Thursday, February 20, to the press Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça, archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church.
The prelate hoped that attention would not focus only on the Holocaust, but also on "the tumultuous post-war period with the growing opposition between two blocs", communist and western.
Decided in March 2019, the availability of these documents should make it possible to respond to the controversy over Pius XII (1939-1958), a controversy that started late in the 1960s. It will be a question of determining whether the head of the '' The Catholic Church during the Second World War, a former diplomat of the Holy See in Germany mixed with caution, was too silent and passive, faced with the enactment of racial laws in Europe and the worst genocide in history.
"Hitler's Pope" or too cautious to spare Catholics?
Could a public speech explicitly condemning the actions of the Nazis, speaking of racial laws and the extermination of the Jews, have influenced German Catholics and changed the course of history?
Critics of Pius XII think so. For his part, his supporters argue that thundering statements by a pope, surrounded in the Vatican by the Nazis and then the Italian fascists, would have endangered Catholics in Europe.
The controversy has given birth to dozens of books, including devastating bestsellers going so far as to speak of "Hitler's Pope" (John Cornwell in 1999).
For the chief rabbi of Rome, Riccardo di Segni, "the story of Pius XII is not 'a black legend' but rather a gray one".
In a text published by the Italian press, he believes that "historians will have to work as if they were in a sterile and isolated room, free from prejudice and influence". Even if he thinks it is a utopia, the subject is monopolized on the one hand by defenders at all costs of Pius XII, on the other by inflexible accusers.
One hundred and fifty researchers from around the world have already requested access to the Vatican's only central "apostolic archives" (formerly "secret archives"), said Mgr Sergio Pagano, who oversees this section, on Thursday, making available 121 documentary collections and 20 000 fascicles on Pius XII.
First served will be experts from the American Holocaust Memorial Museum and representatives of the Jewish community in Rome, he said. The researchers will compete for twenty places during what will be "a busy year", he recognized. But dozens of others will consult the other significant archives of the Holy See. For example, the archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (ex-Inquisition).
Years of research will be needed
According to its archivist Mgr Alejandro Cifres Giménez, 200 meters of shelves housing 1,749 booklets are dedicated to the 19 years of pontificate of Pius XII. Available in a 14-seat reading room.
Johan Ickx, from the historical archives of the Secretariat of State (central government) on diplomatic relations with other states, will offer "1.3 million digitized and indexed documents, to help researchers move quickly", a novelty . Historians will for example be able to find documents on the contacts between the nuncio (ambassador of the Holy See) in Berlin and the German authorities.
"It will take years to examine all these files and make an historic judgment," said Mgr Pagano, who nevertheless slipped that "nothing surprising has emerged", the period of the Second World War having already been largely unveiled by the Church in 1981.
On the other hand, he dreads the amateurs of "scoops" fond of cookie-cutter conclusions.
Vatican requires, some documents of the period will remain secret, like the archives documenting the conclave - the election of the pope - or the trials against bishops during his pontificate, which was the longest of the 20th century after that of John Paul II. Buried out of sight in the Vatican Archives bunker, which houses 85 kilometers of shelves.
With AFP
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