The Vatican has announced it will open its secret archives on Pope Pius XII, who led the Catholic Church during the Second World War and has been accused of failing to speak out about the Holocaust.

For decades, Jews have petitioned the Holy See to open the files on Pope Pius XII, who died in 1958. On Monday, Pope Francis announced that the archive would be opened on March 2 next year.

Arguments about Pius XII’s wartime activities have persisted for decades.

The Catholic Church and some historians have maintained that the wartime Pope was instrumental in working to help Jews. However, others have accused the Church leader of silence in the face of atrocities being carried out by the Nazis, most notably the 1999 book by John Cornwell, Hitler’s Pope.

March 2, 2020 will mark the 81^st anniversary of the election of Pius XII to the Papacy.

In his announcement, Pope Francis said the process "of inventory and preparation of substantial documentation" had begun more than a decade ago, in 2006, on the wishes of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. 

In an article published in Italian by the Vatican News, the official news website of the Vatican, the Pope said: said: "The church is not afraid of history, on the contrary, she loves it & would like to love it more and better, just as she loves God."

The article said: “Serious and objective historical research will be able to evaluate, in its proper light, with appropriate criticism, moments of exaltation of that Pontiff.”

It added: “Without doubt there were also moments of serious difficulties, of tormented decisions, of human and Christian prudence, which might seem like reticence to some.

"On the contrary there were hard-fought attempts to keep the flame of humanitarian initiatives, of hidden but active diplomacy, of hope in possible good openings of hearts, lit up in the periods of more intense darkness and cruelty.”