Jesuits deny giving authorization to publish Pius XII archive

Vatican City, Apr 24, 2009 / 08:06 am

The Press and Information Office of the Society of Jesus issued a note today denying that their superior had approved the publication of documents from the archives of Fr. Robert Graham S.J. on the pontificate of Pope Pius XII.

Yesterday, Gary Krupp, president of the Pave the Way Foundation, told CNA that his research team had been granted access to digitize the documents from Fr. Graham's archives and then organize them. Once the documents are assembled and analyzed, Krupp said, they will be published on the Internet in order "to end this problem between Jews and Catholics."

In addition, several other media outlets, including L'Osservatore Romano, picked up the news published by Catholic News Service that Father Adolfo Nicolás, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, had authorized access to Father Graham’s archives.

However, according to the official statement from the Jesuits, "such authorization has never been given." They explained that "The documents will be cataloged but not published. A possible future publication can only happen after the Holy See opens its archives regarding the pontificate of Pope Pius XII."

According to the statement, "the private collection of Fr. Graham, who died in 1997 and was considered the leading Vatican expert on the role played by the Pontiff during World War II, contains more than 25,000 documents concerning initiatives undertaken by the Pope and the Vatican during that period."