Did Pius XII Go Undercover?

Related to my previous post, CNA has an article offering details of one family's experience with the wartime pope, whom they believe dressed up as a Franciscan, went into the Jewish Ghetto, and took them to safety within the Vatican City walls.

Gary Krupp came across the evidence in a letter from a Jewish woman whose family was rescued thanks to direct Vatican intervention.

“It is an unusual letter, written by a woman who is alive today in northern Italy, who said she was with her mother, her uncle, and a few other relatives in an audience with Pius XII in 1947.” Next to Pope Pius during the meeting was his Assistant Secretary of State, Monsignor Giovanni Montini, the future Pope Paul VI.

“Her uncle immediately looks at the Pope and he says, ‘You were dressed as a Franciscan,’ and looked at Montini who was standing next to him, ‘and you as a regular priest. You took me out of the ghetto into the Vatican.’ Montini immediately said, ‘Silence, do not ever repeat that story.’”

Krupp, who has made it his life's work to clear the good name of Pope Pius XII, also confirms the recent revelations that the 1963 play The Deputy (in which the pope was portrayed as cowardly acquiescing to the Nazi regime) was a Soviet plot to smear his reputation.

[A] former high-ranking KGB officer, Ion Mihai Pacepa,...claims that the tarnishing of the Pope’s reputation was a Soviet plot.

Krupp explains how the communists wanted to “discredit the Pope after his death, to destroy the reputation of the Catholic Church and, more significantly to us, to isolate the Jews from the Catholics. It succeeded very well in all three areas.”

But Krupp sees the tide turning.

“The dam is cracking now, without question,” he says.

Ironically, perhaps, Krupp says he meets more resistance when he speaks at Catholic parishes than in Jewish synagogues. “Many Jews,” he explains, “have been extremely grateful, saying, ‘I’m very happy to hear that. I never wanted to believe this about him,’ especially those of us who knew him, who were old enough to know him.”

It is said that, at the moment of the Pope's death, Padre Pio, who was in the middle of saying Mass, saw a glorious vision of the Holy Father in his heavenly abode. St. Pio's account is confirmed by several persons, who were told of his vision. Many have also claimed miracles through his intercession. We can therefore pray with confidence for the Holy Father's beatification.

Prayer for the Beatification of Pius XII

O Jesus, Eternal Pontiff, You deigned to elevate to the supreme dignity of Your Vicar here on earth, Your faithful servant Pius XII, and to him You gave the grace of being an intrepid defender of the Faith and a courageous asserter of justice and of peace, a devoted glorifier of Your Holy Mother and a luminous model of charity and of all the virtues. Deem worthy now, in view of his merits, to grant us the grace that we ask of You. We are certain of his efficacious intercession and we hope to see him one day glorified on Your altars. Amen.

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+ Petrus Canisius Van Lierde

Related: CIA episode on Pope Pius XII