Vatican to open secret archives as window onto Pope Pius XII's disputed Holocaust legacy

Pope Francis announced Monday that the Vatican will release documents pertaining to Pope Pius XII's disputed legacy during the Holocaust after decades of Jewish groups calling for the achieves to be opened, The Washington Post reports. "The church is not afraid of history," Pope Francis said.

The Vatican remained neutral during World War II, and Pius, who was pope between 1939 and 1958, did not publicly denounce Nazism. Yet supporters claim Pope Pius XII, who is on the path to sainthood, worked quietly to save Jews and other targets of Nazi persecution.

Rabbi David Rosen, the American Jewish Committee's director of interreligious affairs, called the Vatican's move "important" in helping "to acknowledge both the failures as well as the valiant efforts made during the period of the Shoah."

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Normally the Vatican opens archives 70 years after the end of a pontificate, The New York Times reports. Pius' archives will open on the 81st anniversary of his election to pope, in March 2020.