VATICAN CITY - The Vatican on Friday called for mutual respect and trust between Catholic and Jewish scholars looking into the Holy See's behaviour during World War Two but again blamed the Jewish side for stalling the study.
The project collapsed into acrimony in July when scholars demanded access to more Vatican documents to shed light on one of the thorniest issues between the faiths -- whether Pope Pius XII did enough to help Jews during the Holocaust.
"This sort of scientific research can only be carried out on a basis of politeness, respect and mutual trust," Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Vatican's Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism, said in a statement.
"This indispensable condition is totally lacking because of the row which broke out when work stopped and because of the insulting suspicions which followed," he added, laying the blame firmly at the Jewish team's door.
"Tactless comments...from the Jewish side fed a sense of mistrust which has made it almost impossible to continue this bilateral research," Kasper wrote.
One of the Jewish scholars involved has accused people in charge of Vatican archives of not wanting to take "essential steps towards full disclosure and unfettered research" -- an attack one cardinal said smacked of a "defamatory campaign" against the Catholic Church.
"The Catholic members of the (research) group publicly distanced themselves from such an argumentative position," Kasper said, acknowledging that some senior members of the Jewish community had shown a desire to continue discussions.
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The six-scholar study group -- three Catholics and three Jews -- was set up in 1999 to review 11 volumes of published material about how the Vatican acted during World War Two.
The wartime role of Pius XII, who did not speak out strongly against the Holocaust although the Vatican had extensive information about it, has been one of the trickiest problems in post-war Catholic-Jewish relations.
The Vatican has defended Pius, who led the Catholic Church from 1939 to 1958, saying he worked behind the scenes to save Jews and avoided provoking further Nazi horrors.
Following widespread Jewish discontent with a Vatican document defending the Pontiff, the two sides set up the study.
But when the panel issued its preliminary report last October, it said the Vatican's version of events was incomplete and asked for full access to the Holy See's wartime archives.
Kasper said he recognised there was not enough material to lay questions to rest but said the group had never been expected to have access to archived documents dating from after 1922.
He tried to cool things down slightly by promising to open up other files as soon as possible.
"In respect for the truth, the Holy See is ready to allow access to the Vatican archives once the sources in question have finished being reordered and catalogued," he said.