ROME—Pope Francis said on Monday that he would open the Vatican archives on Pope Pius XII, bowing to decades of requests from historians and Jewish groups who have questioned why the wartime pope stayed silent during the horrors of Nazi-controlled Europe. Pope Pius has been criticized for his failure to speak out against the Holocaust, as well as for his earlier record as the Vatican’s Secretary of State, when he negotiated a concordat establishing the Holy See’s relations with Nazi Germany.

Source: Wall Street Journal March 04, 2019 16:13 UTC