Secret Vatican Files

The Church is not afraid of history. With these words Pope Francis opened the Vatican archives on Pope Pius XII in 2019. Millions of letters, secret dispatches, telegrams, supplications, and countless other types of documents were made public to scholars around the world for the first time. Today, after decades, we can investigate one of the most controversial figures in contemporary history: Pope Pius XII, the Pope of Silence. For some, he is the Pope who did not denounce Hitler's murderous madness, becoming almost his accomplice. For others, Pius XII's silence was a weapon to fight the Fuhrer, through despatches and secret actions. Decades of bitter controversy over the actions of this Pope can now be definitively resolved.