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VATICAN CONTINUES TO HIDE COMPLICITY IN THE HOLOCAUST

Vatican Reneges on Cooperation with Scholars to Investigate Wartime Pope’s Involvement in Crimes of Genocide

Insider notes from United Press International for Tuesday, July 31, 2001

A panel of six Jewish and Catholic scholars, assembled in 1999 by the Vatican to investigate the papacy and the Holocaust, has refused to submit a final report. The savants had hoped to put to rest allegations of silence on the part of Pope Pius XII about the fate of the Jews. The Vatican had said the panel would be given every assistance. But instead of opening up its archives, Vatican officials presented the panel members with copies of the 11-volume Acts and Documents of the Holy See during World War II, published nearly 40 years ago. All requests for further, original documentation were refused. The panel sent a letter to the Vatican saying, "We cannot see a way forward at present and believe that we must suspend our work." Scholars point out that in the published "Acts" there are no references to the original sources and no guarantee as to the integrity and scope of its inclusions. Vatican officials have accused the panel scholars of bad faith.