New York, NY, May 10, 2007 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today urged Pope Benedict XVI to indefinitely suspend the sainthood process for Pope Pius XII until secret World War II Vatican archives are declassified and fully examined, "so that the full record of the Pope's actions during the Holocaust may finally be known."

The Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints has sent to Pope Benedict a decree moving Pius XII one step closer to sainthood.  The 30 cardinals and bishops making up the body issued a decree recognizing Pius XII's "heroic virtues."

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor, issued the following statement:

We urge Pope Benedict XVI to suspend the sainthood process for Pope Pius XII for the sake of historical truth and the deepening friendship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people.  While we understand that the process of sainthood is an internal matter for the Church, the issue of what Pius XII did or did not do to help save Jews during the Holocaust is a profound question that must be resolved first for the sake of the Jewish-Catholic relationship.
 
To proceed on the process toward sainthood without having all of the facts would be premature when so much is not known about the historical truth of the Vatican's actions during the war.

Until all the Vatican's secret World War II-era archives are declassified and made available to legitimate independent scholars for study and analysis, Pius XII's record vis-à-vis Jews will continue to be shrouded, and a source of controversy and contention.  The archives must be declassified and examined so that the full record of the pope's actions during the Holocaust may finally be known.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.