Online Workshop preparing the Conference "Pius XII and the Low Countries (1939-1958)"
03 February 2022 09:00

The opening of the different Vatican Archives for the pontificate of Pius XII (1939-1958) in March 2020 sparks the interest of scholars from different disciplines worldwide. It strengthens tendencies to revisit the his­tory of the 1940s and 1950s beyond established narratives and sources, and nourishes hopes to find answers to old and new questions and to discover innovative themes and approaches. Two years after the opening of these archives, a multidisciplinary group of scholars from Bel­gium and the Netherlands plans a scientific conference to analyze the impact of the opening of these archives on a variety of fields of research, specifically relating to the history of the Low Countries in the 1940s and 1950s. The aim is to present new research based on documentation retrieved in the Vatican archives on both the period of World War II and the afterwar period, and analyzes to what extent these Vatican sources not only challenge existing re­search on the history of the Catholic church, but also on broader themes in the history of the Low Countries.

This online Workshop, hosted by the Academia Belgica in Rome precedes the final Conference, which date and program will soon be announced by its steering committee (Kim Christiaens, Jan De Volder, Dries Vanysacker) depending on the health situation linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. Experts will give a keynote on how the opening of the Vatican Archives for Pius XII relates to the state of the art of different fields of research. These keynotes will be live streamed and will be made available afterwards in PodCast.

Program

Click here to join the Zoom meeting [ID meeting: 839 4182 4605 / Passcode: 923607]