ROME – Two new discoveries regarding Pope Pius XII are rekindling debate over the role of the wartime pontiff, including a letter suggesting he had earlier knowledge of the Holocaust than previously believed and a Nazi dagger presented to the pontiff by a repentant SS officer.
Both items were published in a Sunday insert of Corriere della Sera, Italy’s paper of record, after have been discovered by a researcher in the Vatican archives and made public with the encouragement of Vatican officials.
