Inquiry questions Vatican silence over Holocaust
By Bruce Johnston in Rome
THE Vatican's efforts to quell criticism of its wartime role, especially its silence on the Holocaust, backfired yesterday when its own inter-religious commission said dozens of questions remained unanswered.
The Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission, consisting of three Jews and three Roman Catholics, demanded access to secret archives. It said the materials it was allowed to examine did not "put to rest significant questions" about the actions of Pope Pius XII. In an interim report, the panel raised 47 questions, and asked for more time before giving a verdict on the wartime Pope.
The Vatican's controversial attempt to beatify Pius has been set back as a result of the continuing row over his alleged anti-Semitism. According to reports yesterday, one of the commission's most important questions concerned its discovery that the Vatican approved anti-Semitic measures adopted by the French Vichy government, which collaborated with the Nazis.
Vatican agents were said to have told the Vichy leader Marshal Petain in 1941 that they had no objections, provided the measures were "administered with justice and charity". The commission is keen to acquire more documentation to determine whether Pius was aware of this opinion, and to answer other questions.
It noted that there appeared to have been no Vatican reaction to Kristallnacht, the night in Germany in 1938 when Nazis burnt synagogues, smashed Jewish shop windows and murdered Jews. It also found that, in reply to pressure from Bishop Konrad von Preysing of Berlin for the Vatican to do something to help the Jews, Pius had said it was up to local bishops to decide when to speak and when to remain silent, given the risk of reprisals.
The commission wondered why Pius twice received Ante Pavelic, the Croatian Ustashe dictator, in 1941 and 1943, despite the fact that he had learnt of the Ustashe regime's massacre of Jews, Gipsies and Orthodox Serbs. It also said there seemed to have been no Vatican reaction to information it received from a bishop concerning Nazi atrocities against Ukrainian Jews. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the current Pope's official spokesman, confirmed that the report raised "a series of questions that require further documentation".
The commission was appointed by the Vatican last year, following a row over the Vatican's refusal to open its archives and amid mounting claims that Pius XII had failed to do enough to oppose the Holocaust.
Commission members were not admitted to secret Vatican's archives to carry out their inquiry. They were given access to an already published 12-volume collection of papers compiled by a Jesuit supporter of Pius XII.
| Badges of the Holocaust | Camp List | Holocaust Discussion Forum | Holocaust Memorium | Holocaust Timeline | Other Links |
Copyright©2003 Christian Churches of God
