Papacy, Holy See, Judaism and Israel in the post-World War II period (1945-1958)

Dissertationsprojekt von Angela Cimino

Betreuer: Prof. Dr. Martin Baumeister

Angela Cimino graduated with a degree in Anthropology, Religions, and Oriental Civilizations in November 2019 and earned her Master's degree in Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology in July 2021 at the University of Bologna. In April 2022, she completed a First-level Master's degree in Religious Pluralism and Historical Knowledge at the Foundation for Religious Studies in Bologna.
In 2021-2022, she conducted research at the same foundation on the relations between the Holy See and the State of Israel during the post-war period.

She is currently a PhD candidate at Ludwig Maximilian University and a member of the transnational group "The Global Pontificate of Pius XII. Catholicism in a Divided World, 1945-1958", coordinated by the German Historical Institute in Rome.

Her research addresses the relations between the Holy See, the Zionist movement, and the State of Israel during Pope Pius XII’s pontificate from 1945 to 1958. During this period, the State of Israel was established in 1948, although the Holy See did not officially recognize it diplomatically until the 1990s. Her research aims to identify the factors that contributed to the diplomatic distance between the two States and to investigate whether significant interactions or informal agreements existed between them despite the lack of formal diplomatic relations in the post-war period.
The innovative aspect of her research lies in the analysis of Vatican documents from the pontificate of Pius XII, made available to scholars in 2020. This analysis provides insights into the Holy See’s perspective and the internal discussions within various Vatican congregations—now called Dicasteries—concerning the Zionist movement, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the possibility of formal diplomatic relations in the aftermath of the Holocaust.