Background
Pierre Blet born on November 20, 1918, in Thaon, France. He was the son of Albert Blet and Solange Rassignol.
75005 Paris, France
In 1958, Blet a doctorate from University of Paris in Sorbonne.
(In 1964, Pope Paul VI ordered the Vatican diplomatic arch...)
In 1964, Pope Paul VI ordered the Vatican diplomatic archives covering the period of World War II opened, and they were eventually published in 12 volumes. Blet taught history at the Pontificia Academia Ecclesiastica for 17 years.
https://www.amazon.com/Pius-XII-Second-World-War/dp/0809105039/?tag=2022091-20
1999
Pierre Blet born on November 20, 1918, in Thaon, France. He was the son of Albert Blet and Solange Rassignol.
Pierre Blet studied in Lyon, France, and Innsbruck, Austria, between 1941 and 1951. In 1958, Blet received a doctorate from the University of Paris-Sorbonne.
On September 7, 1937, Pierre Blet entered the novice of the Society of Jesus in Laval. Since then, he has always been the faithful son of San Ignacio de Loyola, reaching 72 years as a Jesuit. He served in the army (at that time it was mandatory in France for the clergy) from September 1939 to December 1941, during the Second World War and the occupation of France by the Germans. During 1946-1947 he was a teacher, practicing as the teacher at Bon Secours school in Brest (Brittany).
The following year he was summoned to Rome by his superiors to teach at the Pontifical Gregorian University as a professor of historical methodology and modern history, where he occupied the department with another prominent Jesuit historian, Fr. Ricardo Garcia Villoslada (1900-1991). At the beginning of 1960, Blessed John XXIII, impressed by the publication of the correspondence of the Apostolic Nuncio in France, Monsrant Ranuccio Scotti (1639-1641), presented by Bleet Sorbonne as an additional thesis, entrusted the correspondence of his predecessor about this Bishop Girolamo Ragazzoni, Bishop III of Bergamore 1583 and 1586 years. The work was completed and published by Gregorian in 1962 as part of the Act Nuntiaturae gallicae (Acts of Nunciature in France), a monumental work sought and sponsored by Pope Roncalli, who himself was an apostolic nuncio in France. Between 1944 and 1953 Blet was very interested in this topic. Then the Pontiff instructed him to prepare an extramural publication of Ranuccio Scotty for the same collection - a task that ended in 1964. Father Blet will become a great authority in this matter from the papal representations with which he loved to be famous.
At that time, the libelous campaign against Pius XII began in the play of German playwright Rolf Hochhut Die Stellvertreter, which premiered in Berlin on February 20, 1963, directed by the communist Erwin Piscator. In it, the Pope was introduced as an accomplice of the Holocaust against the Jews for the guilty silence due to the secret proximity of the Pontiff with Nazism. Paul VI, who served in the Curia for twenty years at the direction of Eugenio Pacelli (first as Secretary of State, and then Pius XII) and learned to be a pope by his side, wanted to resist the slander of his predecessor by opening the Vatican Archives during the war (1939-1945) to publish documents related to the actions of the Holy See during the conflict. In December 1964, a huge and huge work was entrusted to four Jesuit historians: PR managers Angelo Martini (Italy), Burkhart Schneider (Germany), Robert A. Graham (USA) and Pierre Blet (France).
Between 1965 and 1982, eleven volumes were published in twelve volumes of Acts and Documents du Saint-Siege, dedicated to the Second World War. Fathers Schneider and Martini died in full work, not seeing the culmination of their efforts. Graham's father continued to deal with Pius XII and came to compile an important archive, which is currently kept in the Society of Jesus. Father Blet worked from the very beginning to the end on the project of Paul VI, combining this activity with his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Theological Academy. In the latter, between 1969 and 1984, he taught the history of diplomacy of the Holy See. His lessons became a book, which today is a must-see classic: “The history of the diplomatic mission of the Holy Jehovah”, published by the Vatican Archive in 1982, with a foreword by Cardinal Agostino Casaroli.
(In 1964, Pope Paul VI ordered the Vatican diplomatic arch...)
1999The attitude of Pope Pius XII toward Nazi Germany and the reasons for his silence in the face of the murder of six million Jews have been the subject of extensive and often acrimonious debate. It was in response to this debate that Pope Paul VI put together a group of Jesuit historians began to explore the archives for documents relating to the war. The result is a mammoth eleven-volume set published from 1965 to 1981.
In addition to the Vatican documents, Blet has also published a more concise defense of Pope Pius XII, titled Pius XII and the Second World War according to the Archives of the Vatican. Blet’s - (and the Vatican’s) - position is that there was no anti-Semitism in the policy of the Church during the outbreak of the war; Pius XII did not publicly denounce the Nazis, in order to avoid antagonizing Hitler into attacking Catholics in both Germany and the territories occupied by the German regime.
Pierre Blet was a man of great courtesy and truly noble. He was rather shy and restrained, but never elusive or unkind. He greeted his visitors with simplicity and friendliness.