The late Pope John XXIII kept a secret diary in which, among other matters, he detailed the dilemma that faced Pope Pius XII in regard to raising his voice against Hitler’s persecution of Jews, according to a Rome report published in the Sunday Express here today.
Pope John was Archbishop Roncalli, in 1943, when, according to the Rome report, he acted as intermediary for the Palestine Chief Rabbi, the late Isaac Halevi Herzog. The latter had appealed, through Archbishop Roncalli to Pope Pius, seeking the Pontiff’s intervention against Hitler’s anti-Semitism. Pope Pius, the diary indicates, regretfully decided not to receive Rabbi Herzog at the Vatican and not to intervene.
Archbishop Roncalli then met Rabbi Herzog secretly in Cairo and, subsequently, sent lettery to Roman Catholic leaders all over Europe, urging them to hide Jews in monasteries and homes. In this manner, many thousands of Jewish lives were saved.
The diary of the late Pope John XXIII is in the possession of Msgr. Loris Capovilla, a Vatican dignitary who is executor of Pope John’s will, the Rome report said. According to the Sunday Express, Msgr. Capovilla has said the late Pope’s diary “will not be published in my lifetime.”
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