As descendants of Holocaust survivors who eventually lived in Israel faced its deadliest attack on Saturday (October 7) since the Second World War, the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome held an international conference earlier this week to shed new light on the historical and theological events related to Pope Pius XII and the Vatican during the Holocaust.
The event - entitled "New Documents from the Pontificate of Pope Pius XII and their Meaning for Jewish-Christian Relations: A Dialogue Between Historians and Theologians" - began with a minute of silence and prayer for the victims of the war in Israel and Palestine.
According to Bishop Etienne Veto, auxiliary bishop of Reims in France and former director of the Cardinal Bea Center for Judaic Studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University, the conference required two years of preparation.
The conference's first session was introduced by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who emphasized that, after Pope Francis's decision in March 2019 to make the documents of the Vatican Secret Archive regarding the pontificate of Pius XII accessible and the publication of several studies, it has been "of fundamental importance to establish historical truth" through historical-critical research.
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Pope Pius XII pictured working at his typewriter as he replies to people's personal letters, January 31, 1955.
The Pope who Saved the Jews
Prior to the 2019 announcement, urban legends say Pius XII was complicit in the Holocaust and was even called "Hitler's Pope." All such accusations and labels have been discredited by the Vatican ever since.
However, the Vatican's top diplomat noted that there were still cases of "scientific dishonesty" that morphed into "historical manipulation," where documents were "negligently or deliberately hidden."
Parolin provided three examples of how Pius referred to the Jews as "brothers," all of which when he was still a young Vatican diplomat named Monsignor Eugenio Pacelli.
In 1916, he wrote to Cardinal Pietro Gasparri and to the American Jewish Committee, and then to the Ashkenazi Jews of Jerusalem in 1919. All of the letters were only recently discovered, Cardinal Parolin as quoted by Vatican News, and they stated how Catholics should perceive the Jews.
"Jews are our brothers," the cardinal quoted the documents as saying. "And the Jewish people should be considered brothers of any other people in the world."
As a result of Pius's very friendly relations with the Jews, the Jews turned to the pope to seek help when the Second World War broke out, Parolin added.
The Jews of Rome were not disappointed, as Pius was well aware of the Holocaust and would like to save as many Jews as he could.
"[D]uring the Second World War, the Pope invited a considerable number of Catholics from religious institutes to defend Jews with all means, as well as participating in the resistance against fascism and Nazism," the Vatican's top diplomat added.
Pope Francis appealed for the immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas during his general audience in St. Peter's Square on Oct. 11, 2023.
Francis Demands Hamas to Release Hostages Immediately
Meanwhile, Pius's successor to the See of St. Peter, Pope Francis, has appealed for the immediate release of hostages that were held by Hamas fighters in Gaza on Wednesday (October 11).
During his weekly general audience, the pope also expressed concern for the safety of Palestinian civilians living in the Gaza Strip, Catholic News Agency reported.
"I pray for those families who saw a feast day transformed into a day of mourning, and I ask that the hostages be immediately released," he said.
The pontiff added that terrorism and extremism "do not help to reach a solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians," but instead "fuel hatred, violence, revenge, and only make both suffer."
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