From October 9 to 11, this international conference brought together researchers from around the world at the Pontifical Gregorian University to take stock of the opening, three years ago, of archives concerning Pope Pius XII and his controversial role vis-à-vis towards the Jews. A conference which allowed Jewish and Catholic points of view to be shared in a spirit of interreligious dialogue.
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With our correspondent in Rome, Eric Senanque
For three days, archivists, historians and theologians from around the world shared their thoughts on this work of memory made possible thanks to the declassification of no less than 16,000,000 documents.
If this immense corpus has not yet revealed all its secrets, it already allows us to have a more rigorous historical vision of the pontificate of Pius XII during the Nazi period, which does not stop only at the pope of the time, explains Monsignor Étienne Vetö, former director of the center for relations with Judaism at the Pontifical Gregorian University, the objectives of the conference:
“ One of the objectives of this conference is to take into account the entire Church in its relationship with the Jewish people at the time, so that also means local bishops, parishes, convents. Many convents intervened or closed their doors. Lots of heroes, lots of cowards too. »
Without reconciling the historical narratives between “a silent pope” in the face of the Shoah or a “protective pope”, this international conference will at least have demonstrated the richness of the exchanges in a respectful academic climate. For many participants, like Rabbi David Meyer, these 3 days of exchanges are a further step to enrich the dialogue between Jews and Catholics:
“ Here, there, we touch on a very sensitive point in the memory of the Church, we touch on a very sensitive point in the memory of Judaism, of course. That shows that there is still this feeling of confidence that has been created since Nostra Aetate and which means that, well, we are now able to do that. And then there is also this idea of saying, it may be that the wisdom of the other can be useful to the other party. »
For the first time, the Vatican and Jewish institutions like the Yad Vashem memorial were partners for a conference of this level, a sign that despite the gray areas of the past, the dialogue continues.
Read alsoThe Vatican puts new archives of the Pius XII pontificate online