In late April and early May, there were multiple news stories about the long-awaited opening of Pope Pius XII’s archives. They were accessible for only a week, before being shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. The first information gleaned from the archives was not good news for the World War II-era pontiff, as it revealed that Pope Pius knew about the genocide of the Jews, yet took little action.
The Religion News Service reported: “German researchers found that the pope, who never directly criticized the Nazi slaughter of Jews, knew from his own sources about Berlin’s death campaign early on. But he kept this from the U.S. government [which in September 1942 sought to confirm information it had about massacres of Jews from the Geneva office of the Jewish Agency for Palestine] after an aide argued that Jews and Ukrainians – his main sources – could not be trusted because they lied and exaggerated, the researchers said.”
However, there was also positive news in the information found in the Vatican archives about Lviv’s Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. Researchers from the University of Munster learned that a month before the American request for corroborating information, Sheptytsky had sent the pope a letter that spoke of 200,000 Jews massacred in Ukraine under the “outright diabolical” German occupation. Catholic priest and historian Hubert Wolf, who leads the university’s team, said the Vatican Secretariat of State’s Angelo Dell’Acqua wrote a memo warning Pope Pius to distrust the reports because Jews “easily exaggerate” and “Orientals” — meaning Archbishop Sheptytsky — “are really not an example of honesty.”
As Alexander Kuzma pointed out in a story published in this newspaper in 2018, over 3,000 Ukrainians have been honored at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem for their heroism in sheltering Jews from the Nazis. Sheptytsky, who spearheaded efforts that saved nearly 150 Jews, who publicly protested the murder of Jews and who urged his faithful to not participate in the killings, is not among them. However, several of those who are recognized by Israel’s memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, including the metropolitan’s own brother, Archimandrite Klymentiy Sheptytsky, could not have acted without the metropolitan’s express permission.
Among those advocating recognition for Metropolitan Andrey as a “Righteous Gentile” at Yad Vashem, is Dr. Leon Chameides of Connecticut, one of the children saved by Metropolitan Andrey, who has often spoken about the Ukrainian Church leader and the many priests, monks and lay Catholics in western Ukraine who risked their lives to shelter him and other Jewish friends and neighbors. In January, Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Reuven Azman sent a letter to Yad Vashem requesting the restoration of historical justice by awarding Metropolitan Andrey the title of “Righteous Among the Nations.”
Now, with the opening of Pope Pius XII’s long-secret archives, even more information about the work of the saintly Metropolitan Andrey is sure to emerge. Dare we hope this will lead to his rightful recognition as one of the Righteous? The JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) news service reported on May 1 that “Yad Vashem has rejected at least a dozen requests to recognize Sheptytsky since the 1960s,” but pointed out that Berel Rodal, a founder of Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, says the newly found letter by Sheptytsky to Pope Pius could have a big impact on whether to reopen Yad Vashem’s review of the metropolitan’s case.