Vatican
City - A Vatican academic conference later this year, commemorating the
50th anniversary of Pope Pius XII's death, will focus on the pontiff's
influence on church reforms, but not on his controversial role during
World War II.

Vatican officials who on Tuesday presented the
conference, also reported no progress in moves - opposed by Jewish
groups - to make Pius a saint.

"We decided on a different
approach, something which has not been studied enough," said Bishop
Salvatore Fisichella, rector of Rome's Pontifical Lateran University.

Fisichella
was referring to the theme of the November 6-7 conference which deals
with the teachings of Pius and their impact on the 1960s Second Vatican
Council, a process which sought to modernize the Roman Catholic Church.

Italian-born
Pius XII, who reigned from 1939 until his death in 1958, has been
accused by some of showing indifference to the Nazi massacre of the
Jews and of failing to speaking out against Hitler.

But the
Vatican and other supporters say he strove to save those persecuted by
the Nazis, including opening the doors of monastries, convents and
other Church premises to shelter Jews.

"Various different
historical situations of great significance came together in the life
of Pius XII," Fisichella said: "The genocide of the Jews, the communist
occupation of various Christian nations, the Cold War, new advances of
science, and the innovations of certain schools of theology."

"The
theme of condemnation for all forms of totalitarianism is mentioned in
a very clear way from his first Encyclical as pope in 1939," he said of
a major document issued by Pius XII's at the beginning of his
pontificate.

Still, historians and Jewish rights groups continue
to ask the Vatican to allow them to examine classified archive material
on Pius XII, especially documents dealing with the period 1939-45.

"I
don't understand these grievances over access to the Vatican archives,"
the president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences,
Monsignor Walter Brandmueller, said Tuesday.

According to
Brandmueller, while the Vatican has de-classified most of its records
on the matter, permission has yet to be granted to examine
documentation on Pius contained in "15 archives in Israel."

Asked
by reporters to comment on progress being made in Pius XII's seemingly
stalled beatification - the first step towards sainthood - the Vatican
officials said that there had been none since May 2007.

Then,
the Vatican's saint-making department voted in favour of a decree
recognizing Pius's "heroic virtues," but the decision has yet to be
approved by Pope Benedict XVI.

Besides the November conference, the Vatican also plans to open a photographic exhibition on Pius XII in October. (dpa)