Without a miracle on his record, the
beatification of Second World War-era pontiff Pius XII is
stalled, says Pope Francis.
During a news conference held as Francis returned Monday
from a three-day trip to the Holy Land, the pope said that the
file on Pius XII is still open.
"There is still no miracle," said Francis.
"If there are no miracles we cannot go forward".
Part of the Church's lengthy process for declaring someone
a saint involves the confirmation of a miracle performed by God
through the intercession of the candidate.
Pius XII is a controversial figure, as critics have claimed
he did not do enough to protect Jews from the Nazi war machine
and did not denounce the Holocaust and the mass extermination of
six million Jews.
Supporters say Pius was working quietly behind the scenes
through the war to protect Jews.
There have been demands for the Vatican to release archives
relating to that period and the full record of both the Vatican
and of pope Pius XII during the Second World War.
Some had hoped that Francis would announce the opening of
those archives when he was visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust
Museum in Israel on Monday.
Since he became the first Latin American and first Jesuit
pope in March 2013, Francis has reached out to the Jewish
community on several occasions.
A large delegation of rabbis attended his inaugural mass,
underscoring the ties between the two religions.
Under his predecessors, late pope John Paul II and Pope
Emeritus Benedict XVI, Jews and Catholics were considered as
"brothers in faith".
But ties were strained by Benedict on at least two
occasions - in January 2009 when he unwittingly rehabilitated a
Holocaust-denying bishop; and in December 2009 when he moved to
beatify Pius XII.
Despite the controversy over Pius, whose record has split
experts for decades, Benedict said that he recognised his
predecessor's "heroic virtues" and proclaimed him "venerable" in
the second of four stages on the path to sainthood.
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