Pope Pius XII
The keeper of the Vatican’s secrets is retiring. Here’s what he wants you to know
By Nicole Winfield — February 19, 2024
VATICAN CITY (AP) — In a new book-length interview titled “Secretum” to be published Tuesday, Pagano divulges some of the unknown, lesser-known and behind-the-scenes details of well-known sagas of the Holy See and its relations with the outside world over the past 12 centuries.
Can Pope Francis bring peace to Ukraine?
By Thomas Reese — May 31, 2023
(RNS) — The pope’s refusal to cheer either side in this war gives him credibility as mediator.
‘Silence is golden’: Vatican archivist defends Pope Pius XII’s response to the Holocaust
By Claire Giangravé — December 8, 2022
(RNS) — Vatican archivist Johan Ickx claims that Pius instructed clergy to save the Jews from the Nazis, while failing to provide proof.
Pope Francis puts Jews’ desperate wartime appeals to Pope Pius XII online
By Claire Giangravé — June 23, 2022
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — The data, which will be available online for free, comprises more than 2,700 requests sent to the Vatican by Jews persecuted by the Nazi regime.
Vatican’s Pius XII archives begin to shed light on WWII pope
By Nicole Winfield — June 7, 2022
VATICAN CITY (AP) — A new book, citing recently opened Vatican archives, suggests the lives the Vatican worked hardest to save were Jews who had converted to Catholicism or were children of Catholic-Jewish 'mixed marriages'.
Berlin’s debate over Pius XII has hit the streets
By Tom Heneghan — February 10, 2021
(RNS) — German historians have asked Berlin authorities to rename a street honoring Pius because he allegedly failed to denounce the Holocaust.
Wartime Vatican archive shows how much Pius knew about the Holocaust, says researcher
By Tom Heneghan — April 27, 2020
PARIS (RNS) — German researchers found that the pope, who never directly criticized the Nazi slaughter of Jews, knew from his own sources about Berlin’s death campaign early on. But he kept it from the US government.
A gift of photos from a papal coronation opens a path for Jewish-Catholic healing
By Yonat Shimron — March 13, 2020
CARY, N.C. (RNS) — Howard Shulman didn’t know it at the time, but his donation of the photographs came just as the Vatican was opening its archives into Pope Pius XII's wartime conduct.
Choosing to die well
By Thomas Reese — August 29, 2019
(RNS) — A controversy over a Seattle man’s blessing at a Catholic church points up the differences between a peaceful death and assisted suicide.
Releasing Vatican WWII archives removes an obstacle to Catholic-Jewish peace
By A. James Rudin — March 4, 2019
(RNS) — The long-simmering controversy over Pius XII's response to the Holocaust has the power to undo many of the extraordinary positive gains that have been achieved since 1965.
Pope: Vatican next year to open archives on wartime Pius XII
By Frances D'Emilio — March 4, 2019
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis said Monday he has decided to open up the Vatican archives on World War II-era Pope Pius XII, who has been criticized by Jews of staying silent on the Holocaust.
Pope Francis shouldn’t risk going to Myanmar
By Thomas Reese — November 20, 2017
(RNS) — Next week Pope Francis will visit Myanmar, where he risks either compromising his moral authority or putting in danger the Christians of that country. I have great admiration for the pope and his abilities, but someone should have talked him out of making this visit.
The ‘Splainer: What is ‘Nostra Aetate,’ and what does it have to do with Catholic-Jewish relations?
By Lauren Markoe — December 10, 2015
(RNS) The Vatican's new document on Jewish-Christian relations harks back to one published 50 years ago, which set the stage for increasingly warmer relations between the church and the Jewish people.
Catholics and Jews pan film defending wartime Pope Pius XII
By Reuters — March 4, 2015
(REUTERS) “Shades of Truth” is the account of a fictional present-day American journalist who starts off as a critic of Pius and changes his mind after research in Israel, Rome and elsewhere in Europe.
Pope Francis: ‘Evolution … is not inconsistent with the notion of creation’
By Josephine McKenna — October 27, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) “God is not a divine being or a magician, but the Creator who brought everything to life,” Pope Francis said.
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