The Vatican
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Vatican won't open Pius XII archives for 6-7 years
Jewish groups' requests for immediate opening of Vatican's secret archives on Pius XII's papacy during Holocaust denied; cataloguing 16 million documents will take six or seven years, spokesman says
The Vatican has rejected Jewish groups' requests for the immediate opening of its secret archives on Pius XII's papacy during the Holocaust years.
Israel-Vatican Relations
Roi Mandel
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It says it will take at least six more years before scholars can consult the archives, which historians and Jewish groups have been clamoring to study.
Some Jewish leaders and historians have said that Pius didn't speak out enough during World War II to save Jews during Hitler's extermination campaign.
Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said the requests to see the wartime archives were "understandable."
But he said Thursday that cataloguing some 16 million documents is expected to take another six or seven years.
