We Implore You, Holy Father

Pope Benedict is no counterpart to his predecessor. He hasn't quite the humanity, the humility and the gentle kindly presence of Pope John-Paul II. He seems not quite to fully understand the consequences of many of his decisions, the manner in which they impact on the Church itself, nor the ripples of consternation they send out to the world at large.

He is the most highly-recognized religious authority in the world and duly respected as such.

Yet some of his initiatives have caused great alarm both within his own institution and within those of others. In particular, his relationship with the Jewish community has suffered a set-back directly related to a number of steps he has taken in the past several years, from bringing back the traditional Latin mass with its references to Jews, to his rehabilitation of a traditionalist Holocaust-denying bishop.

Yet it is the pope's insistent determination to achieve sainthood for WWII-era Pope Pius XII that is causing the most dismay, and threatening to create an unbridgeable schism between the Catholic and the Jewish communities, taking that relationship back in time to a place where unease and lack of communication marked their perceptions of one another.

All the advances that Pope John-Paul had worked so diligently to achieve will have been undone. Simply because the Vatican refuses to release the historical records that could achieve clarification of Pope Pius's position during the Holocaust years.

Now, eighteen Catholic scholars from the United States, Germany and Australia have issued a letter to Pope Benedict, asking him for a more measured process. To pause in the two steps yet remaining; beatification and canonization, preparatory to declaring sainthood for Pope Pius XII.

"Holy Father, we implore you, acting on your wisdom as a renowned scholar, professor and teacher, to be patient with the cause of Pius XII. Currently, existing research leads us to the view that Pope Pius XII did not issue a clearly worded statement, unconditionally condemning the wholesale slaughter and murder of European Jews", the letter states.

"We implore you to ensure that such a historical investigation takes place before proceeding with the [sainthood] cause of Pope Pius XII", pointing out that in their opinion it seemed on the available evidence that Pius represented a "symbol of Christian anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism" and that "Proceeding with the cause of Pope Pius XII without an exhaustive study of his action during the Holocaust might harm Jewish-Catholic relations in a way that cannot be overcome in the foreseeable future".

Those who co-signed this cautionary letter represent leading theologians in the Roman Catholic Church, most of whom have intensively studied the Holocaust, and who have become acknowledged experts on Judaism and Jewish relations with the Catholic Church. They take the position of Jewish scholars who have repeatedly requested the Vatican to open its archives for study.

When he was still Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, his ascension to the position of pope caused a mild flurry of concern from within the Jewish community when it became known that as a youth he had been drafted into the Hitler Youth and served as a young man in the German army during the Second world War.

It would be beyond unfortunate if this pope proceeded with his plan to confer sainthood on an earlier pope - whose seeming inability to transcend a tepid concern for a desperate population of European Jews destined for annihilation - when the very people whose plight he ignored now call for a just conclusion to an occurrence that blighted the reputation of the Church.