c. 1999 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Catholic and Jewish scholars will make a joint study of some of the Vatican archives covering World War II to try to resolve the highly contentious issue of whether the Roman Catholic Church could have done more to avert the Holocaust, the Vatican said Tuesday (Oct. 19).

The announcement followed a meeting on Monday in Rome between Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews, and Seymour D. Reich, chairman of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations.

It came amid controversy over the possible beatification of the wartime Pope Pius XII, who has been accused of failing to act in defense of the Jews. The Jesuit weekly magazine America said”his beatification at this time would be inopportune.” The agreement provides for a team of six scholars _ three Catholics and three Jews _ to review archival material on the church’s wartime role contained in 11 volumes the Vatican published between 1965 and 1981.

Although this falls short of repeated demands by Jewish groups for full access to all documents on the period in the Vatican Secret Archives, Cassidy indicated the Vatican also would provide unpublished papers on demand.”Cardinal Cassidy and Mr. Reich expressed the hope that any questions and differences that now exist or may arise can be resolved through the joint review approach,”the Vatican said.”The team of scholars is expected to raise relevant questions and issues that, in its opinion, have not been adequately or satisfactorily resolved by the available documentation, and to issue a report on its findings,”the Vatican said.”During their review, the six scholars may also draw on the knowledge and assistance of other specialists, including colleagues and associates.” Reich, a New York attorney, called the arrangement unusual but said it was”a useful first step in resolving the matter of the Vatican’s role during World War II and resuming the Catholic-Jewish dialogue that has helped advance the evolving relationship between our two faiths in recent decades.” In Jerusalem, Rabbi David Rosen, the Israeli representative to the IJCIC, said he believes the agreement is”significant”in that it would give the scholarly group at least”partial access”to selected materials from closed Vatican archives.”Cardinal Cassidy led us to understand that if the commission says that there is specific archival material missing, and asks for clarification on outstanding issues, he would support access, partial access,”Rosen said.”That permission is significant because there are already questions that exist that are not answered in the original 11 volumes,”Rosen said.

The 11 volumes were compiled by four Jesuit historians named by Pope Paul VI in 1964 to sort through and publish documents stored in hundreds of cartons in the Vatican archives. Paul VI acted in response to debate set off by Rolf Hochhuth’s 1963 play”The Deputy,”which attacked the wartime Pius XII for failing to condemn the Nazi killing of Jews.

The Rev. Pierre Blet, the only surviving member of the team of historians, recently published a 12th volume,”Pius XII and the Second World War According to the Archives of the Vatican,”which summarizes the historians’ findings.

The Vatican said Cassidy proposed the Catholic-Jewish review at a meeting of the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee on March 26, 1998.

That was 10 days after the Vatican issued a statement on the Holocaust:”We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah,”which, instead of mending Catholic-Jewish relations, produced further strains.

Many Jewish leaders angrily rejected the document on the grounds the church still had failed to make a full apology or admit complicity and continued to defend Pope Pius XII.

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A newly published book by British journalist John Cornwell,”Hitler’s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII,”has further inflamed the debate.

Cornwell contends the pope ignored the plight of the Jews because he was anti-Semitic and supported Nazi Germany as a bulwark against the Soviet Union.

Presenting the Italian edition of his own book at a Vatican news conference Oct. 8, Blet flatly denied Cornwell’s charges and cited evidence that while the pope used guarded terms when he spoke about the Nazi persecution of the Jews, he worked behind the scenes to save lives.

Blet noted that Israeli historian Pinchas Lapide has estimated that Pius XII’s actions saved the lives of 850,000 Jews during the war.

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The Vatican said the names of the three Catholic and Jewish scholars who will carry out the review will be announced soon.

The IJCIC is made up of the American Jewish Committee, B’nai B’rith International, Israel Jewish Council on Interreligious Consultations, World Jewish Congress, Orthodox Union and Rabbinical Council of America, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and Rabbinical Assembly and Union of American Hebrew Congregations and Central Conference of American Rabbis.

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