In 2020, Pope Francis released more than 16 million pages of history relating to the pontificate of Pius XII to be researched and analyzed.
New pieces of information have been discovered in these archives and will be presented in a conference titled, The New Documents from the Pontificate of Pope Pius XII and their Meaning for Jewish-Christian Relations.
This conference will build upon the Church's document, Nostra Aetate, that rejected antisemitism and described the Jewish people as chosen and blessed by God.
It will also focus on the historical and theological controversies surrounding Pius XII and the Vatican during the Holocaust. These new archivial documents can help shed light on the little known work that the Pope and other Vatican employees did to help protect Jews during the Nazi regime.
JOHAN ICKX
Archivist, Secretariat of State
These people (at the Vatican) continued working day after day against evil in its purest form.
They had to carefully weigh every situation to determine when, and when not, to take action, because they knew that the Nazis often increased their punishments when someone spoke out.
The conference will take place from October 9-11 with the goal of highlighting the important historical relationship between Jews and Christians, particularly during Pius XII's pontificate.
KG
