Retiring Vatican archivist reveals secrets gleaned from 45-year service

RELIGIONS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA) – Archbishop Sergio Pagano, who has worked in the secret Vatican Apostolic Archive for 45 years, is publishing a book today entitled “Secretum”.

AP reported he has revealed some of the secrets from the past 1200 years.

Speaking to Italian journalist Massimo Franco, he revealed nuggets of information on Napoleon’s sacking of the archive in 1810, the trial and inquisition of Galileo in 1663 and the role of Pope Pius XII and what he knew about the holocaust during the second world war.

The Archive is stored in 53 miles of shelving, mainly in a concrete bunker under the Vatican.

It is no longer called “secret” and can be opened to scholars, but that hasn’t stopped the spread of conspiracies, like Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.