Obviously, it was right for the Pope to open up the entire archives relating to the activities of the Vatican during the Second World War.

Obviously, it was right for the Pope to open up the entire archives relating to the activities of the Vatican during the Second World War. The release of 11 hefty volumes of material from those archives – Acts and Documents of the Holy See relating to the Second World War – selected by an international commission of Jesuit scholars, between 1965 and 1981, had one predictable effect, which was to make those who weren’t privy to the material assume that evidence which tended to discredit the pope of the time, Pius XII, was suppressed. The very existence of something called a “secret archive” makes people assume the worst.

But, as Pope Francis observed, “the Church isn’t afraid of history”. Certainly, it shouldn’t be afraid of historians, at least, not good historians. And I should be very surprised myself if there emerged from the enormous archive any material that substantially discredited the Acts and Documents… produced by the Jesuit commission. I’d put the lot online, myself.

The indisputable fact is that hundreds of Jews were given refuge within the Vatican state (many convents can show you exactly where they hid). It’s still the case that Eugenio Pacelli, Pius XII, was not the bold, prophetic pontiff that the times needed, which is not to say that he merited in any sense the abominable, catchy, universally quoted, title of John Cornwell’s book Hitler’s Pope.

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