Church in the World

Nuncio in Holocaust ceremony U-turn

Israel

The Pope's ambassador to Israel attended a Holocaust memorial event on Sunday, narrowly averting a major diplomatic row between Israel and the Vatican over the wartime behaviour of Pope Pius XII, writes Michael Hirst.

Archbishop Antonio Franco, the apostolic nuncio to Israel, had earlier announced that he would be boycotting the Yad Vashem torch-lighting ceremony in protest against the museum's description of the wartime Pope.

One of the museum's pictures shows the candidate for sainthood standing with fascist leaders, and is adjoined by a caption stating: "Even when reports about the murder of Jews reached the Vatican, the pope did not protest."

The nuncio said that the museum's treatment of Pius XII was at odds with contemporary historical research, and insisted that Pius XII was instrumental in saving lives of thousands of Jews by a policy of quiet diplomacy.

"I consider this picture in that place and the caption that accompanies it unfair and something that disturbs my feelings and the feelings of Catholics all over the world," said the archbishop. He added that his boycott threat was in no way aimed at distancing himself from ceremonies honouring Holocaust victims, but rather a diplomatic initiative to highlight the seriousness with which the Vatican takes the issue.

He reversed his decision to boycott the ceremony after he received an eleventh-hour assurance from Yad Vashem's chairman, Avner Shalev, that the museum was prepared to revise its position. "The evaluation of the role of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust poses a challenge to those who wish to seriously confront it," Mr Shalev wrote. "We would be pleased to examine any new documentation that may come to light on this issue."