The pontiff’s letter has emerged from the Vatican Archives
A document found in the Vatican Archives has shed new light on the events of World War II, revealing that Pope Pius XII knew about Nazi concentration camps and the mass extermination of Jews.
The unprecedented document was revealed by the column “La Lettura”, of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
The discovery was possible thanks to Giovanni Coco, archivist and researcher at the Vatican Archives, who classified the letter as a “unique case of enormous value”.
“We want to clarify, also to understand the terrible period in which Pacelli led the Church”, he considered.
The revelation should reignite the debate on the pontiff’s alleged silence on these issues, and could harm the campaign for his beatification, but it was the Vatican itself that decided on transparency by opening the archives of the time.
The historian hopes that the new documents will “feed a new consciousness”: “We have been debating for more than half a century on the basis of documents and indirect sources. Now we have direct ones, and it is likely that others will emerge. We are trying to make them accessible to all ”.
“Everything must come to light, without fear or prejudice. This is what we have been doing in recent years here at the Archive”, he assured.
While on the one hand the new discovery demonstrates that the history of those years, especially regarding what the Vatican did or did not do, is still yet to be written; it is instead a sign of the climate of terror and threat that reached the Sacred Palace.
Also in this regard, the supplement “La Lettura” published a photo of a knife engraved with a Nazi swastika, found in the apartment of Pius XII by his successor, Pope John XXIII, who asked the then substitute of the Secretariat of State, Monsignor Angelo Dell’Acqua, who declared that he was unaware of the object.
The monsignor then” consulted Sister Pascalina Lenhert, oracle of Pius XII, his housekeeper. And the nun revealed that the knife had been brought to the audience by a member of the SS [polícia hitlerista] who should use it against Pius XII. But the soldier regretted it and presented it to the Pope.”
Myron Taylor, personal representative of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, asked Pius XII to speak forcefully about the persecution of the Jews, but he did not accept.
For the Vatican historian “other fears also had an influence: first of all, the concrete possibility of Nazi reprisals against Polish Catholics, their flock of believers”. .
Source: Terra
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