ZGram - 12/29/2002 - "Vatican to Release Archives Pertaining to Relations With Pre-World War II Germany"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

January 29, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Last night I heard Ernst Zundel comfort a distressed Catholic 
supporter about the ambivalent, if not treacherous role of many 
leaders of the Catholic church.  Ernst said:  "Like all institutions, 
the Catholic Church is infiltrated and manipulated by the enemy. 
There are now major re-evaluations of Pius XII's role in dealing with 
Stalin and the Western Allies.  They will soon be published, and will 
shock and pain honest, traditional Catholics far more than his 
supposed '...silence on the fate of the Jews.'

The controversy continues about Pope Pius XII's real role in this 
crucial period of the Third Reich, especially World War II - and even 
during the postwar years.  Pope Pius XII's actions and pronouncements 
show him to deserve far more the title of "Stalin's Pope" or 
"Roosevelt's Pope" than "Hitler's Pope", as has been so shrilly 
alleged.

The Jewish attacks on this leader of the Catholic Church are a mere 
smoke screen by the dark forces trying to prevent Catholics at large 
from delving into the church's collusion under Pius XII in the 
communization of all of Eastern Europe, allowing millions of Germans, 
many of them Catholics, to be murdered and expelled from "Catholic" 
Poland - so that the current Polish Pope, "Woytila", could preach in 
the ancient German cathedral in Breslau and state that "...these 
stones bear witness to the Polish nature of this area" - or words to 
that effect.

Read on:

[START]

Vatican to Release Archives Pertaining to Relations With Pre-World 
War II Germany

Saturday, December 28, 2002


VATICAN CITY - The Vatican will release archives documenting its 
relations with Germany in the years before World War II in an effort 
to counter criticism of papacy actions during the Holocaust.

But the Vatican said Saturday that a chunk of the archive dating from 
1931 to 1934 was "nearly completely destroyed or dispersed" during 
the 1945 bombing of Berlin and a fire at the apostolic nuncio's 
palace.

The Feb. 15 release will be the Vatican's response to demands by 
Jewish groups for access to archives dealing with Pope Pius XII, the 
World War II pope. Critics of the pope charge that he failed to raise 
his voice and use his position to head off the extermination of 
European Jews by the Nazis.

Supporters of the pope insist he made every effort possible to help 
Jews and other victims, using quiet diplomacy.

The documents scheduled for release do not involve the papacy of Pius 
XII but cover the years 1922-1939, when he was a Vatican diplomat in 
Germany and later secretary of state.

Specifically, they cover the Vatican diplomatic missions in Berlin 
and Munich, and include a series of documents relating to the rise of 
"National Socialism" -- the Nazi ideology -- and the "condemnation of 
racism," a statement from papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.

The documents will not be released to the general public, but will be 
made available to scholars who request access, the statement said.

The Vatican said in February it would open up its Germany-related 
archives to help end what it called the "unjust and ungrateful 
speculation" surrounding Pius XII's wartime actions.

At the time, the Vatican was under fresh criticism from Jewish groups 
after a panel of Catholic and Jewish scholars studying the Vatican's 
wartime record said it was suspending its work because the Vatican 
had not released all its wartime archives.

At the time, Jewish groups urged the Vatican to delay its plans to 
beatify Pius XII, pope from 1939 to 1958, until the record was 
straight.

In October, the Vatican said the documents would be released in January.

But earlier this month, the head of the Vatican archives, the Rev. 
Sergio Pagano, told The Associated Press the date would be missed by 
a few weeks because of the huge amount of material involved.

The Vatican has said the documents, including files on wartime 
prisoners, would show historians "the great works of charity and 
assistance" undertaken by Pius XII.

[END]

(Source:  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,74093,00.html )