The dispute revolves around a paragraph-long picture caption of Pius XII that was installed when the newly-designed Yad Vashem museum was opened in 2005. The previous Vatican ambassador sent a letter of complaint about the text a year ago and now Monsignor Franco has complained again. The text notes that Pius XII's reaction to the Holocaust is controversial and states: "When he was elected Pope in 1939, he shelved a letter against racism and anti-semitism that his predecessor had prepared. Even when reports about the murder of Jews reached the Vatican, the Pope did not protest either verbally or in writing." The description also says Pius XII chose not to sign a December 1942 Allied declaration condemning the extermination of Jews and did not intervene when Jews were being deported from Rome to Auschwitz.

It is not the first criticism of Pius XII, who has long been regarded as one of the Catholic church's most controversial leaders. In the past, critics have dismissed him as "Hitler's Pope" for failing to speak out against the Holocaust and suggested his silence was aimed at averting a Communist takeover in Europe. However, others have sought to exonerate him, arguing instead that he was trying to defend a Catholic minority in Germany from the Nazis and suggesting he should be fast-tracked for canonisation.

Monsignor Franco, an Italian who has been a Vatican diplomat for 35 years, accepted there was debate and disagreement about the part played by the Pope during the second world war, but said he opposed the wording of the text at Yad Vashem. "I consider this picture in that place and the caption that accompanies it unfair and something that disturbs my feelings and the feelings of Catholics all over the world. It does not correspond to the truth," he told the Guardian today. "My approach is not polemic," he said. "It is an approach of dialogue and research and discussion and to see if perhaps it could be presented in another way."
Monsignor Franco, 70, defended Pius XII's silence over the Holocaust. "It was not really silence, it was a policy taken to avoid worsening the situation," he said. "When there were public statements and declarations there would be a huge number of people who were simply eliminated. Repression was the response to any kind of public position taken."

Yad Vashem stood by its text, although it said it was "prepared to continue examining the issue". It also called on the Vatican to open up its archives of documents relating to Pius XII. "Yad Vashem is shocked by, and regrets, that the Vatican's delegate to Israel has chosen not to respect the memory of the Holocaust and not to participate in the official ceremony in which the state of Israel and the Jewish people join in memory of the victims," Iris Rosenberg, a spokeswoman for the museum, said in a statement. "The Holocaust history museum presents the historical truth on Pope Pius XII as it is known to scholars today," she said. "It is unacceptable to use diplomatic pressure when dealing with historical research." Relations between Israel and the Vatican have been fraught for years. Full diplomatic relations were only established in 1993 and there have been continuing disagreements over the taxing of church property in and around Jerusalem. Last month Israeli government officials postponed at the last minute a trip to the Vatican for what would have been the first fully attended meeting of a joint commission on church-state issues for five years.

Check out these links to ongoing Vatican issues below, or go directly to the website linked above from vaticanbankclaims.com

National Catholic Reporter, June 16, 2006, Vatican faces Continued Legal Challenges to Immmunity in US Courts

Religion, Rome, and the Reich: The Vatican's Other Dirty Secret, The Independent (UK), may 21, 2006

Ex-Vatican official dies in Sun City home, Arizona Republic, February 22, 2006

Arts Journal, Following the Ratlines, January 19, 2006

Calvi Murder Trial Reveals Profound Links With Vatican Bank, Bloomberg, November 23, 2005

God's Banker Murder Trial Begins, American Atheists, November 18, 2005

The Vatican Shelters a War Criminal, New Vatican Ratline, The Trumpet, September 23, 2005

United nations Criminal Tribunal Accuses Franciscan Order & Vatican of Hiding Croatian War Criminals! History Repeats Itself as Vatican Ratline Using Franciscan Monastaries is Exposed. Telegraph-UK, September 20, 2005.

London Times, Church entrusts its talents to top bankers, July 12, 2005

Pope John Paul II’s Legacy in the Balkans, Carl Savich, Serbianna

Vatican asks Rice for help in sex abuse lawsuit , National Catholic Reporter, March 11, 2005

Carlo Calvi Exposes Vatican Financial Corruption, Montreal Mirror

The Shady deals of God's Banker

Argentina defends Two Ustasha War Criminals, Uki Net, June 2, 2003

Franciscan Order and Croat Terrorists linked to Bosnian shrine of Medjugorje, International News Analysis, March 18, 2003

US State Department calls Medjugorje Godforsaken Place, Kronzer Foundation

London - A panel of judges in Rome is expected to announce shortly that the death of "God's banker" Roberto Calvi, found strung up under Blackfriars Bridge in London in June 1982, was murder, Cape Times, February 19, 2003

Allegations of Molestation, Suspended Medjugorje Priest Launcches Cross Country Tour, The Wanderer, November 7, 2002

Vatican Bank and Bishop Marcinkus, Phoenix New Times, February 13, 2003

Nazi Salutes Openly Used in Zagreb, BBC, February 6, 2003

Queen of Profits, Medjugorje Draws Thousands of Pilgrims and Dollars,Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission Newspaper, December 2002

Leading Medjugorje Franciscan, Barred from Cathedral, Accused of Sex Crimes, Washington Post, November 20, 2002

Special Fund for former slave laborers fopm Serbia

Vatican's Banker was Murdered, BBC, October 25, 2002

Vatican to Face its Pedophilia Crimes before the UN, October 14, 2002

New Clue Truns up in God's Banker's Death,October 14, 2002, The Guardian

Milosevic Implicates Vatican Bank in Arms Deal, Radio Netherlands, September 27, 2002

VATICAN BANK IS SUED IN US OVER CHARITY SCANDAL , The Mail on Sunday Newspaper, August 11, 2002

John Loftus is the Plaintiffs' Expert Witness against the Vatican Bank defendants. It is possible that John Loftus may know more intelligence secrets than anyone alive.

Full Copy of Complaint filed by Five States Against Martin Frankel and the Holy See for Insurance Fraud and Racketeering

Missouri Insurance Regulators have sued the Vatican, alleging that Roman Catholic Church officials conspired to launder millions of dollars looted in one of the largest scandals to rock the U.S. insurance industry. Kansas City Star, May 11, 2002

Vatican Sexual Exploitation of Children Violates International Law, Inter Press Service, April 23, 2002

Lawsuit (Complete text) against the Holy See for Sexual Abuse Cover Up, Vatican accused of Protecting Pedophiles

Long-awaited forensic tests into the death of Vatican banker Roberto Calvi - found hanging from a bridge in London in 1982 - are reported to show he was murdered. BBC News, April 19, 2002

The Vatican's Worldly Assets, The Independent, April 19, 2002

Hundreds Sue Vatican Over Child Sex Abuse, April 6, 2002, Sydney Morning Herald

A JUDGE in Rome ordered that a controversial film about the mysterious death of a Vatican-linked banker be withdrawn from cinemas across Italy yesterday after a complaint by a businessman with alleged Mafia links that it damages his reputation and honour, London Times, March 28, 2002

BBC, March 8, 2002, Twenty years after he was found hanging from a London bridge, a film opens in Italy on Friday 8 March which reignites the controversy about what happened to Vatican banker Roberto Calvi.

New film portrays Vatican Bank at the centre of a conspiracy involving drug-running mafiosi, corrupt bankers and politicians, arms traders, Freemasons and spies. London Times, February 27, 2002.

Irish Times, February 2, 2002, The Real Odessa

BBC, Author Blames Vatican for Holocaust, January 15, 2002

German Press Agency, December 10, 2001, Croatian Nationalists Attack over Nazi Monument

Daily Telegraph, November 19, 2001, Vatican Named as Major Money Laundering Center

Vatican Fraud Ring Exposed, Two Senior Officials Charged, Nov. 7, 2001, The Guardian

Our Lady of Lies, the Franciscans and Medjugorje, Salon Magazine

Vatican Continues to Deny Access to World War II Archives, October 19, 2001, Daily Telegraph

Vatican Accused of Nazi Era Cover Up, July 25, 2001, The

Deep Black Lies by David Guyatt, one of plaintiffs' expert witnesses

Jews Protest Beatification of Ustashe Cardinal,JTA News

Franciscan Controlled Bank Raided by UN Forces - Ties to Croat Extremists and Medjugorje Alleged

Croatian War Criminals Linked to Franciscan Order and Marianist Cult

Pope to Pray at Nazi Gold Bank, Irish Independent, April 6, 2000

Xinhua News Agency, October 3, 2000, Vatican bank Involved in Mafia's Online Washing Money

The Role of the Catholic Church in Yugoslavia's Holocaust

Anti Semitism in Croatia Today

Official US State Department report on the "Fate of the Wartime Ustasha Treasury" is available on this page.

Croatian volunteers in the Nazi Army.

Ustashe atrocities documented Warning! This material is extremely disturbing.

The Vatican Pipeline, $170 million in Nazi Gold to the Vatican, Time Magazine

Ustashe movement documented.

Online book,The Vatican's Billions; by Avro Manhattan

The Vatican, Croatia, and Nazi Gold, Flame Magazine

Washing Money in the Holy See, Fortune magazine, August 1999

US World News Report, March 30, 1998, Did gold stolen by Croatian fascists reach the Vatican?

What is the Vatican Hiding? The Vatican's Complicity in Genocide in Fascist Croatia by Barry Lituchy

The Ghosts of Surmanci: Queen of Peace, Ethnic Cleansing, Ruined Lives

US World News Report 11/15/99: Did a Wartime Pope Anticipate Nazi Victory?

Ustasha Loot from Holocaust Victims Enriched Eva Peron

Nazi Nostalgia in Croatia

Gelli Arrest Focuses Attention on Vatican Bank, American Atheists, September 1998

CNN: Vatican Drawn Into Scandal Over Nazi Gold, July 22, 1997