Vatican opens Secret Archives from 1922-1939.

Am I reading this article right. Can someone tell me if this article is saying that the pope of that time period tryed to help the Jews? Or is it saying he did nothing to help the Jews? Why is this being open today? What difference does this make?

Vatican opens 1922-1939 archives

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican opened its secret archives on the papacy of Pius XI between 1922 and 1939 on Monday and said "unjust opinions" concerning its relations with Jews in the pre-World War Two period would be overturned.

A source said some 60 people had come to the archives on the first day asking to consult the mass of documents, which consist of some 30,000 files totaling millions of pages.

theres more to this you can find it here

news.yahoo.com...

[edit on 19-9-2006 by Shar]

It's saying both.

Sort of like Schindler's list, a lot of people who wanted to save people couldn't just outright oppose the nazis....and if this man didn't have the papal authority behind him, he may well not have been able to outright oppose Hitler, no matter his views, or how much he helped fight agiants it.

So why do you think its being open today? What is the reason behind it?

News BBC

Details of the Vatican's relations with Germany's Adolf Hitler and Italy's Benito Mussolini are expected to be of great interest to scholars.

The latest release covers the years when no less than four notorious dictators came to power - Benito Mussolini in Italy, Joseph Stalin in Russia, Adolf Hitler in Germany and Francisco Franco in Spain.

Details of relations between the Vatican and these countries during this period will be of outstanding interest to scholars.

The future Pope Pius XII was the Vatican's nuncio or ambassador in Berlin in the 1930s and his correspondence with Rome will also be eagerly scrutinised.

Who knows what is written in all those files, maybe some facts, which could re-write the History as we know it. But I think Pope Pius XI was Innocent when compared to Pope Pius XII - also know as the Nazi Pope, who signed the Reichskonkordat between the Third Reich and the Holy See. Well I would love to see this Document.

Actually Pope Pius XII was also known as the Hitler's Pope, as called by mister John Cornwell, who written the book with the same name; he further argues that Pius was anti-Semitic and that this stance prevented him from caring about the European Jews.

So let's see these Roots of Anti-Semitism coming from Vatican.

Do you think the current popes concern about all of this, and the opening of these secert archives is because he is from Germany?

Originally posted by Shar
Do you think the current popes concern about all of this, and the opening of these secert archives is because he is from Germany?

I really have no Idea - but that is a good question!

Maybe he would like his past to be somehow "cleaned up", since we all know he was in Hitler Jugend; so the best thing to do, is to re-open some old Nazi-Vatican Files, which would make him look like an innocent puppy, compared to Pope Pius XII. I don't know exactly....