Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Historian's Report for October 2017
Historian’s
Report
A RIVALRY THAT BECAME A FRIENDSHIP
By Mike McCormack, NY State Historian
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| Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty |
On October 30, 1963, Cahirciveen, County Kerry saw the largest
outpouring of grief since the loss their favorite son, the great Daniel
O’Connell in 1847. This time it was for another one of their own – Monsignor
Hugh O’Flaherty. Although he was born in Kiskeam, County Cork and grew up in
Killarney, Msgr. Hugh retired to Cahirciveen three years before his death and
was honored as one of their own. He was also honored with many decorations,
including Commander of the British Empire and the US Medal of
Freedom for Hugh O’Flaherty was a very special man who was mourned throughout
the world, including in a front page tribute in the New York Times.
Young Hugh had a vocation for the priesthood and as a seminarian
he was posted to Rome in 1922, the year that
Mussolini came to power. He earned a degree in Theology and was ordained in
1925. Continuing his studies, he earned doctorates in Divinity, Canon Law and
Philosophy. He became a skilled diplomat and served the Vatican at posts in Egypt, Haiti, San Domingo and Czechoslovakia before being called
back to Rome to serve the Holy Office at the Vatican.
Father O’Flaherty was an excellent golfer, having learned at the
Killarney Golf Club where his father was employed. While in Rome, he played regularly
with Mussolini’s son-in-law and other social luminaries. In 1934, he was
elevated to Monsignor and enjoyed a high standing in the social life of Rome which he made use
of after 1937 when Italy joined Germany and Japan as part of the
Axis. The new Monsignor was from an
Irish nationalist background and in his youth witnessed atrocities by Black and
Tans during which a number of his friends were killed. When WWII began in 1939, he refused to take
sides believing that the Brits were as bad as the Nazis; however, that soon
changed. When the Americans invaded at Salerno on Sept 3, 1943, Italy left the Axis and an
armistice was declared on Sept 8 between Italy and the Allies. When Germany learned that the
Italians signed an armistice, they took over critical defensive positions in Italy and on Sept 10 they
occupied Rome.
The Nazis began to crack down on prominent Jews and aristocratic
anti-fascists. Having socialized with
these people before the war, the Monsignor hid them in farms, monasteries,
convents and his own residence.
O’Flaherty’s views changed after he saw the violence perpetrated by the
Nazis. He visited Allied prisoners held
in harsh conditions in Italian jails and began to offer shelter to Allied
servicemen who turned up at the Vatican looking for sanctuary.
He expanded his operations to help escaped allied prisoners-of-war and
shot-down pilots. He gradually recruited
a group to assist him and set up a network of safe houses. Allied military who evaded capture made their
way to the Vatican or to the Irish
Embassy to the Holy See – the only English-speaking embassy open in Rome during the war. The great Irish singer, Delia Murphy, was the
wife of the Irish Ambassador at the time and she was one of Msgr. O'Flaherty’s
aides.
By the war’s end the Monsignor and his group had helped more than
6,500 allies escape the Nazis and he was referred to as ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican’. He became a master of disguises to avoid capture
from the Germans when he had to go beyond the 'White Line’ on his rescue
missions. The line was painted on the
streets outside the Vatican on the instructions of
Herbert Kappler, the head of the Gestapo, to mark the point where the Vatican’s authority ended and
Nazi rule began. Kappler had learned of
O’Flaherty’s operation and reminded O’Flaherty that if he was caught beyond
that line he would be executed! In March
1944, after the Italian Resistance killed 33 German soldiers in a bomb attack
Hitler demanded revenge so Kappler drew up plans to kill 10 Italians for each
German soldier killed. His men killed
335 people in the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome. It was the worst atrocity on Italian soil
during the War. This was the man who
tried several times to kidnap and kill O’Flaherty; he even put a bounty of
30,000 Lire on his head. Meanwhile,
O’Flaherty continued to outwit Kappler with fake credentials and documents
printed in the Vatican; through his secret
communication network and by disguising himself to evade capture by the
Gestapo.
At the War Crimes trial after the war, Kappler was sentenced to
life imprisonment with no parole for the Ardeatine Caves massacre. In a surprising move, Italy’s most hated prisoner
wrote to his old rival inviting Msgr O’Flaherty to visit him in prison; the
Kerry cleric immediately went to meet with his former foe. Their meetings became regular affairs during
which they discussed religion and literature.
The Monsignor joked, “Here I am
with this man who a price on my head and now we are sort of pals.” The feeling was mutual as Kappler described
O’Flaherty as “a fatherly friend”.
After his sentence Kappler, who was Protestant, called on the Monsignor and the
two men prayed together after which Msgr O’Flaherty received Kappler into the
Faith. In what was probably Monsignor
O’Flaherty’s greatest victory, Italy’s most notorious Nazi
was welcomed into the Catholic Church by the very man he had tried so hard to
kill.
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| Herbert Kappler Prison Photo circa 1945 |
Kappler remained in prison in Italy until he contracted
cancer in 1975 and was transferred to a military hospital in Rome. In August 1977 his
wife dramatically smuggled him out of the hospital into a waiting car and took
him back to Germany where he died in
1978. As for his courageous rival, in
October 1963, (54 years ago this month) the village of Caherciveen, County Kerry saw the biggest
funeral it had ever seen.
Representatives from the Vatican and officials from the
British and Irish governments and friends from his days in Rome were among the
mourners. The 1983 film 'The Scarlet and the Black’ with Gregory
Peck describes his wartime activities, but the rivalry, forged in wartime,
which became a friendship created in peacetime remains one of the most
fascinating stories to emerge from World War II.
