By Giovanni Preziosi—reprinted with permission from L’Osservatore Romano
Th e story which we are about to tell begins in the autumn of 1943 where on the other side of the Tevere,
between the Vatican walls, discussions were taking place about the logistics of hiding refugees in the Vatican’s
extra-territorial structures. Th anks to patient and detailed research in the archives of the Society of the Sacred
Heart, a pontifi cal institute on the Gianicolo in Rome, this author was able to uncover the hitherto unknown,
Journal of the House “Villa Lante” in which the nuns who lived there scrupulously annotated the day-to-day
events of those years.
While Hitler was in Germany making plans for exterminating the Jews and the danger of deportations was
on the rise, Sister Maria Teresa Gonzales de Castejon was in her room at her convent in Rome, writing in
her diary: “We had a catacomb in our garden as a place of refuge. Th is catacomb was very large. A little later
some families we knew or friends of our community slept in the refuge of our mother house. We knew that
the Holy Father had opened the doors of the Vatican to refugees, especially Jewish ones, to save them from
racial persecution. Many religious houses followed his example and Rev. Mothers Datti, Dupont and Perry
decided to hide refugees too.”
On October 6, 1943, we learn from the Journal of the House, “Villa Lante” an interesting detail: “Reverend
Mother (Manuela Vicente) was called to the Vatican. She went with Sister Platania to the Secretariat of State
where His Excellency Mons. Montini asked her, in the name of the Holy Father, to house three families
that risked, like many others, being taken by the Germans. He even off ered an automobile to take Mother
immediately back to the Mother House to ask permission. She went with Rev. Mother Pirelli but did not
bring back a full consensus. Th ere were already fi fteen people housed in Betania and the Rev. Mother tried
to fi nd other accommodation in order to grant the desire of the Holy Father who deigned to trust her.”
On that same day, as documents in the archives of the Offi ce of Strategic Service, declassifi ed some years after
the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act attest, the Allied forces learned of a secret dispatch, Cablegram 19 entitled,
“Personal. For the Fuhrer and Minister of the Reich,” which told of Hitler’s secret plan for the deportation of 8,000
Roman Jews to German concentration camps to be defi nitely “liquidated.” Th en, on October 11, in an encrypted
radio message sent from the head of the Central Offi ce for Security of the Reich, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, to Herbert
Kappler, we learn that, “It is exactly the complete and immediate eradication of the Jews in Italy which is in the
special interest of the present internal political situation and of the general security interest of Italy. Th e longer we
wait, the more the Jews, who are no doubt relying on evacuation measures, will have the opportunity to go and
hide in the houses of Italians favorable to the Jews and to disappear completely.
A few days later, on October 16, 1943, the plan went into action with the ignominious sweep of the Jewish
ghetto in Rome. As these documents uncontrovertibly prove, the Allies were perfectly aware of the wicked
plan the Germans were about to undertake, and with ten days’ warning!
It was necessary, therefore, to act fast and it would not be out of the question to hypothesize that through some
diplomatic channel, the Vatican entourage was also made aware of the chilling news. It would be otherwise
diffi cult to explain the rapidity with which Pius XII, through Mons. Giovanni Battista Montini, exhorted
the Superior General of the Society of the Sacred Heart, Manuela Vicente, to arrange adequate refuge in the
religious houses in order to shelter the persecuted Jews. At that point, therefore, the Holy See decided the
moment had come to open the doors of all of the religious houses and institutes in Rome and off er refuge nd protection to many Jews who were in serious danger. All the while attempting not to attract attention
and to operate in the strictest reserve.
An entry of October 11, 1943, in the archive documentation of the sisters of the Society of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus reads, “A day of great work on the one hand and great terror on the other! . . . While everyone helps to empty
the schoolroom of benches, desks, chalkboards and turn them into bedrooms, below in the porter’s lodge, there is
a constant stream of frightened young people who come and ask to be taken in for fear of the Germans who want
to deport them to Germany. Th e Rev. Mother and the Mother Bursar go down to comfort, advise, and reassure
them: it has been a morning of anxiety and at the same time much maternal goodness and sympathy. Th ere is a
stampede: men who fear being taken by the Germans and run to hide themselves or at least try to make sure their
wives and children are safe; they ask for refuge in the convents and our Rev. Mother Saladini tries to accommodate
them; everyone helps. Th e schoolroom has been made over to welcome entire families with their nurses, in the
dining room and the room adjacent, three tables reunite adults and children from two to sixty and older; there are
wives and mothers of diplomats, military, former students.”
It is interesting to note the chronological coincidence of these events with a Vatican directive of October 25,
1943, revealed by the current Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, which, “furnished direction to house
Jews persecuted by the Nazis in all religious institutes, to open the institutes and also the catacombs.”
In fact, this document seems already to have been prepared at least by October 12, 1943, as the Journal of the
House “Villa Lante” attests: “Special temporary powers have been granted by the Holy See. In reality, many
Mother Superiors already knew this. Th e Vatican has made it known that a document was ready, declaring
that our Mother House was recognized as part of the Holy See. No request was made, but this protection is
very welcome. Th is declaration could be posted in the entry-way to the house.”
To avoid the danger of sudden requisitions by the Nazis or Fascists of the convents, monasteries and Institutes
where the Jews were hidden, the Holy See delivered the notice written in German and Italian, to be affi xed
to the doors of all of the properties, declaring that this building was directly dependent on Vatican City and
therefore, any search or requisition was forbidden.
In the Journal of “Villa Lante” the sisters note: “Th e document sent by the Holy See was distributed to all of
the pontifi cal, religious Mother Houses. Th is will be a safeguard, even though the arrival of the gestapo in
Rome is not reassuring. Th e searches seem to be intensifying. Villa Lante has received this document.”
Although publicly a rigorous order of silence was imposed by the Vatican—which should not be interpreted
as a form of passivity or indiff erence—in reality, from October 1943, as we have shown, the Holy See took
measures to impart precise instructions to all convents and churches in Italy, calling on them to open the
doors of their religious houses to all those persecuted, and in a special way to the Jews.
Source: Pope Pius XII and World War II: The Documented Truth