VATICAN CITY (WJC)– The Vatican is planning to post selected documents from its World War II archives on the internet, according to the Catholic news agency ‘Zenit’.
The move came at the initiative of Pave the Way Foundation, a US-based group that promotes inter-religious dialogue and strives to defend wartime Pope Pius XII from allegations that he ignored Jewish suffering during the Holocaust.
Pave the Way offered to digitize some 5,125 descriptions and copies of documents from the closed section of the Vatican archives, ranging from the period of March 1939 to May 1945, ‘Zenit’ reported. These would then be posted on the websites of both the Vatican and Pave the Way.
Pave the Way President Gary Krupp told the news agency that the documents in question had been “previously published and mostly ignored.” He said their publication on the internet was “not meant to be a substitute for the full access” to the Vatican archives, but would “show the unique efforts of Pope Pius XII and the dangers he was forced to operate under a direct threat from the Nazi regime.”
However, media reports said the documents to be published would not include material directly relating to Pius XII.
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress