The distinguished German church historian, Professor Hubert Wolf of Münster University said he hopes that the archives on Pius XII’s Pontificate, which are to open on 2 March, will bring new insights on the diplomatic relationship between the Vatican and the United States in the twentieth century and on the so-called “ratlines”, a system of escape routes for prominent Nazis fleeing from Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War.
He and his team of seven would be starting work on the Pius XII archives straight away on 2 March, Professor Wolf told Kirche-und-leben and Kathpress news agencies. Their primary aim, for which they had received funding from the German bishops’ conference among others, was “an approach to the subject of Pius XII and the Holocaust”. Professor Wolf said he wanted to work on this with the College of Jewish Studies at Heidelberg University. “It will be necessary to interpret the sources and that can perfectly well be done controversially,” Wolf said. He would then like to publish the relevant sources online “as this is first of all a service”.
As for Pius XII’s relationship with the United States, Wolf recalled that Pius had already done some networking there when he was Secretary of State. He had, for instance, met President John F. Kennedy’s father, Joseph Kennedy. It would be important to find out what role these networks had played during the war and above all after the war.
Most of the archive material from Germany, the USA and Great Britain on the Holocaust had been evaluated, he said, but this was not the case for the “ratlines”. The reports of the then nuncio in Argentina would now be available and might shed more light on them.
He was also curious to see what could be found concerning the three founders of the association which led to the founding of the EU, Konrad Adenauer, Robert Schumann and Alcide de Gasperi, who all had audiences with Pius XII.
It would, moreover, be interesting to do research on the Vatican’s reflections on its relations to Islam, the Vatican’s and Pius’ attitude to the founding of the state of Israel and why Israel was not recognised by the Holy See until 1994 under Pope St John Paul II, Wolf said.
It would probably be three to four years before any serious results of his team’s research could be published, he concluded.
Loading ...
