Vatican seeks to reassure Jews on Pius XII

Yesterday - 14.32 The Vatican sought today to reassure the Jews, asserting that the decision to move forward the process of beatification of Pius XII is a recognition of his Christian faith and not a final opinion on his historic papacy. Continue reading this Story The head of the Vatican press office, Father Federico Lombardi, issued a long statement explaining the reasons that led Pope Benedict XVI to approve the decree of recognition of "heroic virtue" of Pius XII, accused by some Jews have turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, with the aim of calming the waters in view of the pontiff's first visit to the synagogue in Rome in January. The decision on the "heroic virtue" concerns the way in which Pius lived faith, said Lombardi, but was greeted with irritation by the Jewish community. The two steps that separate the Pope of the Second World War by the holiness are the beatification and canonization, and both could last for years. The Vatican confirms Pius XII worked behind the scenes for the Jews, because his direct intervention would have worsened the situation of both the Jews of Catholics in Europe, but the Jewish community rejected this interpretation. In today's press stated that " ' care and concern of Pius XII for the fate of the Jews … are widely witnessed and recognized even by many Jews after the war. But "left open the continued research and evaluation of the historians in their specific field," when a few years the huge amount of documents in the archives will be available to the public. Benedict XVI's decision to sign the decree on the virt heroic "does not in any way be viewed as a hostile act against the Jewish people," continues the note. After his election in 2005, the Pope has visited synagogues in his native Germany and the United States. But the visit to the Roman temple on the Tiber very significant, because relations between the Vatican and the most ancient Jewish community since the diaspora have often been seen as a barometer of relations between the two religious communities worldwide. - On other news site www.reuters.it Reuters in Italian. The top news also on www.twitter.com / reuters_italia