World News
Yad Vashem moderates text regarding Pope Pius XII's actions with Nazis
Published: July 3, 2012
JERUSALEM (CNS) -- New text in an exhibit at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial offers a less-critical assessment of the actions of Pope Pius XII in dealing with the Nazi persecution of Jews during World War II. While the new text still points to Pope Pius' prominent role in the church's negotiations with Nazi officials, it paints a more complex picture of the situation decades ago. Still, the new text includes criticism of the Vatican for not opening its archives to allow historians to research the actions of the Holy See at the time, noting that until researchers have access to "all relevant" materials the topic will "remain open to further inquiry." Archbishop Antonio Franco, papal nuncio to Israel and the Palestinian territories, who in 2007 had threatened to not take part in Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony because of the exhibit's text, told Catholic News Service the move was "a step forward." "It is an opening, very important in the sense of attention to the documents and a more accurate search to try to understand really from the inside what the behavior was of the Holy Father and the Catholic Church," he said in a July 3 telephone interview.
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