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By PJ Grisar
October 3, 2023
Enough time has passed, the Vatican decided in 2019, to examine the record of Pope Pius.
The church unsealed papal archives long sought after by historians, and researchers have begun to paint a damning portrait. Pius XII, the head of the church through World War II, was not the quiet hero of Jews that many defenders long claimed. In September, unearthed letters suggested that Pius knew the genocidal worst about the death camps and said nothing and, last year, historian David Kertzer’s book The Pope at War revealed that Pius only interceded on behalf of a very specific victim: ethnic Jews who were baptized.