“Hitler’s Pope”: Pope Francis may declassify the role that was played by “Hitler’s Pope” during the rule World War II-era regimes, including Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, it was reported.
A close friend of Francis, Rabbi Abraham Skorka, who has known the pontiff for 20 years, told the Daily Telegraph that he discussed the matter of Pope Pius XII, called at times “Hitler’s Pope.”
“It’s a terribly sensitive issue, but he says that it must be investigated thoroughly,” he told the paper. “I have no doubt that he will move to open the archives.”
He was quoted as saying that Francis will likely open up archives on Pius, namely on whether he cooperated with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and others. Critics accused him of remaining silent during the Holocaust and other atrocities.
But there were accounts that Pius may have helped around 200,000 Jews escape Germany in the 1930s.
When he was a cardinal in Argentina, Francis called for opening the Vatican archives, saying it would be necessary to investigate Pius, according to The Jewish Week last month.
When the two wrote the book, Skorka said that “I explained that I could not understand how a person — a spiritual leader — didn’t involve himself more and more during the Shoah [Holocaust]. [Francis’s] answer was, ‘Let us continue searching to reach the truth.’”
“I believe yes, that his attitude will be to search for all of the details and to open all the archives. He will use this opportunity to learn the truth,” Skorka told the publication.
Pius was pope in 1939 and remained the pontiff until he died in 1958.
Skorka co-authored a book with Francis in 2010 called “On Heaven and Earth.”
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