Pius XII study group folds.

Rome--In early August the Vatican Press office announced that the Jewish-Catholic study group on the role of Pius XII during World War II had suspended operations.

The commission communicated its decision in a letter addressed to Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Commission for Interreligious Relations with Judaism, who is directing the initiative. Elan Steinberg, director of the Jewish World Congress, reported the decision to media in the United States.

The commission was estabished in 1999 to probe accusations that Pius XII avoided public condemnation of Nazi atrocities. The group consisted of three Jewish historians and three Catholics, who were reduced to two after Eva Flieschner resigned.

On June 21, Cardinal Kasper requested the preparation of a final report by the historians, acknowledging that the Vatican archives from 1923 on ward are not accessible to researchers for technical reasons.

On July 20, the five historians responded with a letter addressed to the Cardinal, in which they said that "without a positive response to our respectful request" to study these archives, the commission's conclusions are not credible.

Therefore, they suspended their work.

Hostile reactions

The announcement was followed by hostile reactions from the usual sources. The Globe and Mail of Toronto, for example, wrote: "Facing awkward scrutiny of Pope Pius XII's wartime dealings with the Nazis, the Vatican appears anxious to keep the facts concealed beneath a rock" (Editorial, "Locked in the Vatican," August 13, 2001). The daily paper trivialized the explanation that cataloguing and classifying the three million documents covering the two Popes, Pius XI and Pius XII, had only advanced to 1923.

Historian Father Peter Gumpel, S.J., who is overseeing the collection of papers for the beatification of Pope Pius XII, issued a press release in Rome indicating that there were difficulties with some members of the study group. One Jewish member, Bernard Luchecky, had leaked a preliminary report; another, Robert Wistrich, in an interview with the Jerusalem Report, imputed bad faith to the Holy See.

More importantly, instead of everyone studying all eleven volumes of documents published already, each one did two volumes only, with reports disparate and at odds with one another. Then, after formulating 47 questions, the members paid next to no attention to the written answers he provided.

Finally, Fr. Gumpel noted that the coordinator of the Jewish side, Seymour Reich, chair of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultation (IJCIC), released to the press the group's joint letter to Cardinal Kasper and used the occasion to misrepresent its content in his press release. Neither Dr. Eugene Fisher, Catholic coordinator for the group, he said, nor the Catholic members of the team were consulted by Reich, and all three Catholics have firmly rejected Reich's press release. It now seems more difficult than ever to see a way forward, he concluded.