NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican's chief foreign-affairs officer, has cautioned reporters that they should not "dramatize" the differences between the Holy See and the government of Israel regarding the process of beatification for Pope Pius XII, since that process is an internal Church affair, not subject to political influences.

      The process for the beatification of Pius XII is following its normal course, the archbishop said, and the recent remarks by Israeli Ambassador Aharon Lopez-- calling for a 50-year moratorium on that process-- has had no effect at all. Moreover, he observed, the ambassador's request "is nothing new from the perspective of the Jewish community."

      Archbishop Tauran went on to say that the documents of the Vatican archives clearly show that Pope Pius XII made extraordinary efforts to save Jewish lives from the Nazi Holocaust, and that no historical sources have produced contrary evidence. In response to the plea by Lopez for the opening of the Vatican archives, the archbishop also said that all of the archival material relating directly to the Holocaust and the Pope's role has already been made public.