Vatican archive documents
on Pius XII going online
By Jesús Colina
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 12, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See is planning to publish on the Internet, free of charge, several documents from the Vatican Secret Archives in relation to World War II.
The initiative is partially in response to a petition from Pave the Way Foundation, an organization dedicated to bridging gaps between religions.
The foundation proposed making digital files of, and later publicizing, some 5125 descriptions and copies of documents from the closed section of the Vatican archives, covering the period of March 1939 to May 1945.
Gary Krupp, the foundation's president and founder, told ZENIT that "the 'Actes et Documents du Saint Siège relatifs a la Seconde Guerre Mondiale [Acts and Documents of the Holy See relative to the Second World War],'" which were "previously published and mostly ignored," will "shortly be available for worldwide scrutiny and study online, free of charge."
[The 'Actes...' were published in 12 volumes in the 1960s by a committee of historians assigned by Paul VI to compile the documents available in the Archives, in order to answer criticisms against Pius XII, following the propaganda success of The Deputy. For some reason, Jewish critics who keep insisting that the Archives containing these same documents be opened to researchers now, never refer to the 'Actes...' - as though they had never been published!]
He explained that these documents will be available on the Web site of his foundation as well as that of the Vatican.
This project is part of the mission of the foundation, a non-sectarian organization that works to remove obstacles between religions, foster cooperation and to end the misuse of religion for private agendas.
The organization's president, who is from New York but of Jewish decent, stated, "In the furtherance of our mission we have recognized the papacy of the war time Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli) as a source of friction impacting over one billion people."
Krupp told Zenit that the publication of these documents was "not meant to be a substitute for the full access" to the Vatican archives, "but will absolutely show the unique efforts of Pope Pius XII and the dangers he was forced to operate under a direct threat from the Nazi regime."
[Yes, it is something that Pius XII's detractors could study between now and 2014 when the actual Archives will be open to outside researchers.]
Fr. Blet, who headed the scholars' group that compiled the 'Actes' later published a book summarizing the contents of the 12 volumes. Fr. Blet died last December.
P.S.
The ZENIT item was reported by the Israeli news agency JTA, but I have not seen reactions yet.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/02/2010 10:44]