Catholic group praises California for ‘largest commutation in history’ as hundreds spared execution
The prominent anti-death penalty group Catholic Mobilizing Network praised California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Nov. 5 for his commutation of the death sentences of every prisoner on the state’s death row.
In a publicly released letter, Newsom said he had “decided to exercise [his] constitutional clemency authority to commute all California death sentences to life without the possibility of parole.”
The Democratic governor, who identifies as Catholic, said in the letter that he had come to “firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values,” that it “undermines the foundations of our legal system,” and that it “diminishes each of us.”
The governor described life in prison without parole as “the most severe punishment I can lawfully impose.” The convicted criminals “will die in prison but not by our hand,” he said.
The commutation covered all 548 prisoners condemned to death in the state. Newsom’s executive order in 2019 ensured executions would not occur while he remained governor.
Responding to the news on Nov. 5, Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, called the decision “an incredibly encouraging and historic witness for life and human dignity.” She described the order as “the largest commutation in world history.”
The Catholic group regularly advocates death sentence commutations and the national abolition of the death penalty itself. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states bluntly that the death penalty is “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”
Vaillancourt Murphy in her statement said the mass clemency “demonstrates how justice can be rooted in mercy and restoration instead of death and retribution.”
Newsom “has given each of [the condemned criminals] a tangible sign of hope and a chance for rehabilitation,” she said.
The decision “underscores the sacred value” of the lives of the prisoners, she said, though she stressed the need to “bear witness to the incomparable suffering that the families and loved ones of murder victims endure.”
“We hear the cry for justice and accountability that grave harm rightly deserves, and we continue to hold them in prayer,” Vaillancourt Murphy said.
Newsom in his statement noted that the state Supreme Court will have to weigh in on some of the commutations according to the state constitution, though the governor said he was “confident that this act of categorical clemency” was in line with state law.
Texas bishops congratulate Democratic winners, reaffirm pro-life and family agenda
After Democrats won every major statewide office in Tuesday’s midterm elections and gained a majority in the Texas House of Representatives, Texas’ Catholic bishops offered prayers for the winners and continued to emphasize public policy priorities aligned with Catholic social teaching.
In a Nov. 5 message, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops congratulated the winners, telling them that the bishops are praying “that God grants them wisdom as they take on the responsibilities of public office.”
The bishops reiterated their legislative priorities in a previously finalized agenda: “As we look ahead to the 90th Texas Legislative Session, the principles of Catholic social and moral teaching that guide our work remain unchanged,” the bishops wrote. They said they will continue to advocate for policies that “uphold human dignity, strengthen families, care for the vulnerable and creation, and promote the common good.”
In the agenda, the bishops stated: “Human life is intrinsically valuable and should be protected by law from conception, which happens at fertilization, to natural death. Moreover, the natural family is the sanctuary of life in which parents teach children how they ought to live.”
Specific policy positions the bishops took in their legislative agenda include supporting funding for abortion alternatives and assistance for parents (including kinship, foster, and adoptive families); opposing euthanasia, in vitro fertilization, and surrogacy; and opposing “the advancement of gender ideology, especially in places where young people are affected.” They also promoted safeguards for “the inviolable dignity of the human person through the ethical development of Artificial Intelligence (AI)” and reasonable steps to address gun-related violence.
The bishops stated they continue to oppose “efforts to weaken the protection of unborn human life.”
Newly elected attorney general says he won’t enforce Texas abortion laws
These stances come as the incoming Democratic administration is expected to pursue pro-abortion measures.
Attorney general-elect and pro-abortion Democrat Nathan Johnson has already said he will not continue outgoing Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuits against out-of-state providers who have illegally mailed abortion pills into Texas, saying he will respect other states’ shield laws but will not enforce Texas’ pro-life laws.
John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, a Christian pro-life advocacy group, called Johnson’s position “absolutely ridiculous.”
“His new job as attorney general is to enforce the laws of Texas, regardless of his personal feelings about them,” Seago told EWTN News.
“The abortion pill trafficking enables abusive men that are ordering pills from other states and sneaking them into the drinks of Texas mothers,” he said. “Nathan Johnson is taking a position that he will defend an industry that enables this type of assault on Texas’ pregnant women.”
Johnson did not respond to a request for comment from EWTN News by the time of publication.
‘Remain engaged in civic life’
Separately, Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio issued his own postelection statement. He recalled the U.S. bishops’ preelection call for Catholics to place faith before politics and noted that Pope Leo XIV cast a mail-in ballot from the Vatican.
The archbishop highlighted issues the Holy Father has emphasized: “protecting human life; protecting religious freedom and human rights; promoting the family; upholding the human dignity of all, including migrants and prisoners; and also promoting political dialogue and building consensus, so that we may find common ground among our diversity.”
“Following [Tuesday’s] election results, I strongly encourage all to remain actively engaged in civic life,” García-Siller wrote. “Let us further the Biblical values of the Kingdom. We do not need more division after a particularly bruising campaign season, but rather, we need unity to be fostered in order to move forward in freedom to discuss difficult topics more deeply in light of the Gospel.”
He ended his statement with prayers for peace and for all officeholders to receive “wisdom and discernment from the Holy Spirit,” invoking Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas and of the archdiocese, to help “build up a civilization of love.”
Republicans retained control of the Texas Senate, a fact noted by some pro-life advocates as a potential check on legislative changes.
Pope Leo XIV praises Chinese Catholics for unity 100 years after consecration of their first bishops
A century after the consecration of the first Chinese bishops, Pope Leo XIV praised the Church in China for remaining in communion with Rome.
On Nov. 5, the Vatican published a video message from the pontiff during a conference titled “The Universal Face of the Church in China,” held at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome. The meeting not only marked the 1926 consecration of China’s first bishops but also reflected on the state of the Chinese church today, particularly regarding the ongoing Vatican-China deal.
Among those present were Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin; Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, dean of the College of Cardinals; Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, SJ, bishop of Hong Kong; and Ignazio Ding Zuyao, bishop of Haimen.
Communion with Peter, not colonialism
In his message, Leo noted Chinese Catholics’ long history of fidelity to the papacy, quoting Pope Benedict XVI, who said that they have always had “legitimate pastors who have preserved intact apostolic succession.”
“No shepherd in the Church can claim the mission as his own,” Leo said. “Rather, he receives and exercises it in communion with the successor of Peter and with all the other successors of the apostles, the bishops.”
The pope also noted the significance of six Chinese priests traveling from Shanghai to Rome in 1926 to receive consecration from Pope Pius XI.
“They crossed the world to bear witness to the communion that springs from the faith of the apostles,” Leo said.
Quoting Pope Benedict XV, Leo affirmed that the Church’s missionary work “cannot be confused with processes of colonization” but is “born of mission” to “bear witness to Christ in charity.”
China-Holy See relations: A relationship marked by suspicion?
The Holy See and China have not maintained official diplomatic relations since 1951. Their provisional, undisclosed 2018 agreement on the selection of bishops has been challenged, with concerns that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is suppressing the Church.
Parolin, speaking on the sidelines of the conference, acknowledged that the deal still has its imperfections.
“All agreements are imperfect, including the one on China,” Parolin said to reporters. “However, the path is open. So we move forward trying to perfect what is imperfect.”
Chow noted the suspicion with which Catholics are sometimes viewed in China, out of fear that their religion could be used as a tool of foreign influence.
“We wonder how come the Church, our Church, in China for so many years is still seen as a foreign Church,” he said. “I think that in China, a major concern is that, for example, religion will not be used as a vehicle for foreign intervention.”
Others, however, expressed support for the so-called “Sinicization” of the Church, which is a state-led campaign to subordinate religious institutions to its Chinese Communist Party agenda.
“The ‘Sinicization of Catholicism’ is not a departure from Catholic tradition but an expression of authentic catholicity,” Joseph Li Shan, bishop of Beijing, said.
Zuyao, made a bishop in October under the Vatican-China deal, added that Sinicization is “not a departure from communion with the universal faith” but rather “a natural expression of inner faith and a faithful implementation of Christ’s command ‘Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.’”
Catholic priest pleads guilty to 1970s sexual assault of Baltimore boy
A Catholic priest has admitted to sexually abusing a boy in Baltimore in the mid-1970s, authorities said this week.
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said Father Laurence LaPointe, 81, admitted to the abuse after an investigation led by the attorney general’s office.
The prosecutor’s office said in a release that LaPointe pleaded guilty on Nov. 4 to a fourth-degree sex offense and common-law assault.
Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Charles Dorsey III sentenced the priest to three years in prison, which the judge immediately suspended; LaPointe was also sentenced to five years of supervised probation.
Among the terms of his probation is the stipulation that LaPointe “have no direct contact with minors under the age of 18” and that he “not volunteer or work in any educational setting involving individuals under the age of 18.”
LaPointe’s victim offered a victim impact statement during the court proceedings, according to the attorney general’s office; the victim said that with the guilty plea, the “heavy burden” of the priest’s abuse “passes from me to [LaPointe].”
“I hope he will find the courage to acknowledge any other misconduct, voluntarily and fully, without requiring other victims to endure years of investigation, the prospect of a trial, and the emotional burden of having to prove what happened to them,” the victim said.
“Those who were sexually assaulted as children continue to carry the burden of that trauma long after they reach adulthood,” Brown said in the press release. “No matter how much time passes, we will help lift that weight off survivors’ shoulders and hold accountable anyone who abuses a position of trust to inflict such devastating harm on our children.”
LaPointe is currently a priest in the Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut. The diocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his status there.
The Norwich Diocese had announced that LaPointe had been placed on ministry leave in March when the allegations surfaced. He had been serving as pastor of Corpus Christi Parish at the time.
Chiclayo priest eagerly awaits his friend, Pope Leo XIV, in Peru
The last time Father Hugo Gabriel Sánchez met Robert Prevost in Chiclayo, Peru, the future pope had just been created a cardinal. In just a few days, that friend, who wishes Sánchez a happy birthday every year and with whom he shared “hearty laughter” when he was Sánchez’s bishop, will return to Peru as pontiff.
A historic visit
Pope Leo will be in Peru from Nov. 11–16, a historic visit that Sánchez described as “a gift from God.” For him, Prevost’s election has meant “a change in the color of his cassock: He remains the same close friend as always, attentive to us and concerned for our well-being.”
Serenity, trust in providence, clarity, and firmness are, in the priest’s view, some of the traits that best define Leo XIV.
Speaking with EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, he also recalled that “Bishop Roberto reflected very well the image of Christ the good shepherd: a shepherd who was always close to his people, whose doors were always open and, above all, whose heart was ready and whose time was available to listen to you patiently and calmly. He knew how to offer wise answers that did not remain merely words but were translated into concrete actions.”
‘The roots of his ministry are here’
Although the two have met on more than one occasion in the Vatican since Leo was elected successor of St. Peter, the young priest acknowledged that this occasion will be different.
“This visit is very important because it was here that he was able to fully develop his vocation and found a way of exercising his ministry first as a priest and then as a bishop. He grew deeply attached to Chiclayo, and having him here again after eight years will be very important for him and for us. The roots of his ministry are here,” Sánchez emphasized.
Recalling the pope’s missionary journey, the priest highlighted the enthusiasm with which “Bishop Roberto” approached major projects and pastoral challenges.
“One of the things that excited him most was launching major initiatives for evangelization, proclaiming the Gospel, and passing on the faith, while never neglecting social assistance,” he said.
A source of encouragement
Sánchez said he has no doubt that Leo XIV is preparing for this trip “with much prayer,” just as the Church in Peru is doing. He is also convinced that this encounter will be a source of encouragement for the Holy Father, especially “after recovering from his operation.”
The priest revealed that the Holy Father expressed a desire to visit the most remote communities. However, difficulties in access, especially because of weather conditions, ultimately prevented their inclusion in the official itinerary.
Even so, he explained, “the pope wanted these people to be the guests of honor at the gathering that will take place in Zaña, in the Chiclayo district.” There, the pontiff will preside over the closing of the jubilee year marking the 300th anniversary of the canonization of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo.
Expectations in the country that holds a special place in Leo XIV’s heart are immense. The Chiclayo priest noted that despite the pope’s simple, humble, and reserved character, “he is someone who, when he stands before a large crowd, seems to come alive even more, with greater joy, enthusiasm, and excitement. You could say that his heart grows larger, and for that reason he will enjoy it very much.”
Sánchez, a member of the organizing committee for the papal trip, said that despite the diocese’s lack of experience and the enormous challenge of preparing a visit of this magnitude, special effort has been made to attend to every detail of the events and warmly welcome all pilgrims.
Asked what Peru would like Leo XIV to find upon his arrival, the priest’s answer was clear: “It is reflected in his own Petrine motto, ‘In Illo uno unum’ — a united Church that knows how to walk together in fraternity.”
This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Pope appoints 2 undersecretaries to integral human development dicastery
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday appointed two new undersecretaries to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development — a priest from Angola and a laywoman from Chile — completing a change in leadership at the dicastery that began Sept. 1.
The pontiff on Nov. 5 named Father Avelino Chicoma Bundo Chico, SJ, and Claudia Leal Luna to fill the hole left by Monsignor Jozef Barlaš’ promotion to secretary of the dicastery.
From Angola, 47-year-old Chico has served in the dicastery since 2020, first as regional coordinator for Africa, then as manager of the “Listening and Dialogue” section, and finally, since 2025, as office manager.
He has a master’s degree in social ethics and a research doctorate in contemporary international migration and development cooperation.
Leal, 48, originally from Chile but living in Italy, has been a teacher at the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences in Rome since 2022.
She has a doctorate in moral theology and previously taught at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile from 2012 to 2022.
She is also a consulter to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and a member of the International Theological Commission.
Leal was one of 26 experts invited to participate in the Vatican’s weeklong gathering of the heads of bishops’ conferences on the 10th anniversary of Amoris Laetitia Oct. 7–14.
The laywoman has two children.
Nomination of members of the Dicastery for Evangelization
Pope Leo on Nov. 5 also named new members for the Dicastery for Evangelization, in the section for the first evangelization and the new particular churches, including former papal nuncio to the United States, Cardinal Christophe Pierre.
He also named as members Cardinal Mario Zenari, former nuncio in Syria; Bishop Ambrogio Spreafico, bishop emeritus of Frosinone-Veroli-Ferentino and Anagni-Alatri in Italy; and Bishop Maurizio Malvestiti of Lodi in Italy.
Pope Leo XIV: Let us not allow the memory of the deceased to be reduced to mere nostalgia
VATICAN CITY — Hope in the resurrection and the communion of saints are the two truths “that illuminate our prayer for the deceased,” Pope Leo XIV said in his homily Thursday at Mass offered for the repose of the cardinals and bishops who have died during the past year.
It is customary for the popes to celebrate this Mass every year at the beginning of November. The list of names for whom the Mass is offered is printed in the opening pages of the liturgical booklet. This year, Mass was offered for seven cardinals and 136 bishops.
At the Mass, celebrated in Latin at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope reflected on the theme of service. For, he said, “indeed, whoever follows Christ becomes his servant and will always be where he is, precisely because they have followed his path.”
Drawing from the first reading of the liturgy, the pope reflected on the hope of the resurrection, a theme already present in the Old Testament. He said: “For our remembrance of our departed brothers and sisters at the altar of the Lord is founded on the promise that our life, in Christ, is not lost, because it has been redeemed.”
Moreover, “if, as Scripture emphasizes, there were no resurrection, it would be pointless to pray for the dead.” Therefore, “to pray for the deceased, then, means to celebrate life! First and foremost the risen life of Christ the Lord, and, by his grace, our own life, which rises in him. The Eucharistic sacrifice is the memorial of his passover, by which he saved us through the gift of himself for us. Let us not allow the memory of the deceased to become merely nostalgic. In faith, we contemplate the mystery of death without fear, because the Lord is alive; he awaits us and has already prepared a place for us in the house of his Father.”
This act of entrustment is rooted in hope in the communion of saints, he said. “When we pray for the deceased, we do so not only for them, but also with them, caught up in that reciprocity which the Holy Spirit brings to life in our hearts. The Church is a mystery of communion between Christ the head and us, his members: from him we receive life. This communion joins together the blessed spirits who already contemplate the face of God and all those who, in heaven or on earth, are making their way toward that radiant goal.”
For this reason, the pope concluded: “In Christ, death does not dissolve our bonds but transforms them into a new dimension, one that can only be understood in the mystery of his love, given to the end on the cross and poured out after the victory of Easter. As we receive, then, in the holy Eucharist, the charity of the risen Lord, may we always preserve and cultivate this communion along our journey, so that when our own hour comes, we too may receive the prayers of our pilgrim brothers and sisters and, with all the saints, enjoy the joy of our heavenly homeland.”
After Mass, Pope Leo visited the Vatican grottoes under St. Peter’s Basilica to pray at the tombs of some of his papal predecessors, including St. Paul VI, Venerable Pius XII, and Benedict XVI.
This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Pope Leo XIV chooses community as theme for World Day of the Sick 2027
Pope Leo XIV has chosen community as the theme for the 2027 World Day of the Sick.
The Vatican announced the theme on Thursday ahead of the annual celebration on Feb. 11, 2027. It will also mark the 35th anniversary of the day’s establishment by St. John Paul II, which is celebrated on the memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes.
The theme, “The Role of the Community in Caring for Every Person,” was published by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and draws on the narrative of Christ healing a paralytic lowered from the roof (Luke 5:19).
In a press release, the dicastery explained that the Gospel asks all to embrace the commandment to love God and neighbor.
“At the heart of our baptismal call is the commandment of mutual love: love your neighbor, take care of your neighbor,” according to the press release.
“Like the friends of the paralytic, parishes and Christian communities are called to assume the responsibility of caring for those who are alone, the elderly and those who suffer, creating spaces of closeness and of hope.”
In February, Leo sent a message on compassion for the World Day of the Sick 2026. The Shrine of Our Lady of Peace in Chiclayo, Peru, was chosen as the celebration’s international site that year. Leo will visit the shrine during his apostolic journey to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru from Nov. 6–17.
Lessons on humility from 20th-century Vatican secretary of state who slept on a straw mattress
At just 38 years of age, Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val assumed one of the most influential positions in the Church upon being appointed Vatican secretary of state by St. Pius X.
A brilliant diplomat born into an aristocratic family, the cardinal had an exceptional intellectual background, spoke several languages, and earned the pope’s trust through his discreet loyalty and profound interior life.
Merry del Val was already working in the Curia during the pontificate of Leo XIII. Following the pope’s death, he was appointed secretary of the 1903 conclave, an event marked by the historic veto exercised by the Austro-Hungarian emperor against Cardinal Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro, who was considered a top favorite to succeed Leo XIII. That episode altered the course of the election and paved the way for Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto, the future St. Pius X, to become pope.
“When he was named pope, he went to the ‘Chapel of Tears’ to pray, and he even wept. It was a time of great persecution for the Church, and he felt that perhaps he was not up to the task, as the situation required someone of great fortitude,” Father Álvaro Serrano Bayán explained to EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.
Serrano is the author of the Spanish-language book “Growing in Humility: 7 Steps with Cardinal Merry del Val,” published by Editorial Monte Carmelo, a work that highlights the rich spiritual life of the Spanish cardinal.
St. Pius X was fully aware of the complex situation the Church was facing at the beginning of the 20th century, and he doubted whether he possessed the strength required to take on such a mission. Amid this uncertainty, Merry del Val approached the newly elected pontiff to encourage him to accept the burden of the Petrine ministry. This gesture of reaching out left an indelible mark.
“It was at a most difficult, most intimate moment. He knew how to reach out, and the pope recognized him as someone he could trust,” Serrano explained.
7 years researching the life of Merry del Val
An aerospace engineer who also holds degrees in history and communications, Serrano, who comes from a town in Extremadura, Spain, has spent seven years tracking down personal letters, homilies, spiritual direction, and scattered writings by the author of the renowned Litany of Humility. The result is a collection of 380 spiritual counsels accessible to the contemporary reader.
It all began almost by chance. While he was a seminarian, he came across the well-known litany attributed to Merry del Val. Those prayers sparked a curiosity that would eventually turn into an extensive investigation.
“The more I learned about Merry del Val, the more I grew to appreciate his writings — his homilies, his spiritual direction, and his letters to people, whether to those he directed or to other people he knew,” the priest recounted.
That fascination led him to spend years exploring archives and publications, eventually transforming all that material into a meditation focused on one of the virtues most difficult to practice in our day: humility. Meanwhile, the cause for the canonization of Servant of God Rafael Merry del Val continues to proceed.
This year also marks 96 years since the death of one of the most significant figures in the Church during the 20th century. Last October, at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV received members of the Merry del Val study group, a meeting that took place in the context of the 160th anniversary of his birth in London in 1865.
The humus of humility
The book, which features a prologue by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the current secretary of state of the Holy See, proposes a seven-stage spiritual journey inspired by the Latin word “humus,” meaning fertile soil. “That is where the word ‘humility’ comes from,” Serrano explained.
Drawing on this image, the author develops an analogy between working the land and spiritual growth. Just as the soil must be tilled, watered, and sown before it can bear fruit, the soul must allow itself to be cultivated by God in order to attain the fullness of the Christian life.
The work can be read from beginning to end, used as a guide for personal prayer, or even “a go-to book to use when adoring the Blessed Sacrament,” the priest explained.
“The journey culminates in the figure of Mary, presented as the Lord’s fruit par excellence,” he emphasized.
A virtue for times of self-centeredness
For Serrano, the message of Merry del Val is particularly relevant in a culture marked by constantly seeking attention and an unceasing search for approval.
“Humility is walking in the truth, being good, telling it like it is without making ourselves out to be more or less than who we really are,” he said, recalling a well-known teaching of St. Teresa of Jesus.
In his view, one of the great contemporary errors is to equate humility with undervaluing oneself. He therefore emphasized that “humility doesn’t mean saying ‘I’m worthless’; rather, humility is valuing ourselves a great deal. God created us, everything comes from God, and we don’t need constant recognition from others to know who we are.”
The purpose of the book, he explained, is to share a spiritual treasure that transformed his own life: “Something that has helped me so much, something that l have enjoyed so much, something of great importance that can contribute to the edification of the soul.”
When your job doesn’t define you
Perhaps one of the most appealing aspects of Merry del Val is precisely the consistency between his words and his way of life. It is relatively easy to practice humility when no one knows your name. What is truly difficult is doing so while holding one of the highest positions in the Church, Serrano noted.
“Merry del Val did not seek the position of secretary of state, nor did he build his identity around it. He knew that responsibilities come and go whereas the priesthood is a permanent reality. Positions come to an end; one’s vocation remains,” observed the priest, noting that this teaching remains as relevant as ever.
A person’s worth, he continued, “doesn’t depend on his job, his social standing, or his productivity, but rather on the dignity of being loved as a child of God.”
Humility in the face of the ‘me’ culture
“Deliver me, O Lord, from the desire to be loved, esteemed, or preferred,” Merry del Val prayed in one of the prayers that made him famous.
These words came from a man who, by human standards, had everything: noble birth, a solid education, command of several languages, and a brilliant ecclesiastical career. His message stands in stark contrast to an era dominated by social media and the need for constant recognition.
“A person who requires constant recognition from others — to begin with has low self-esteem. Furthermore, such a person is often quite arrogant,” Serrano pointed out. In contrast to this mindset, Merry del Val suggested doing things out of love for God and for their inherent goodness, rather than for any social reward they might bring.
The position of being the second most powerful man in the Holy See might have fueled the vainglory of any man, the priest noted. Yet, for this illustrious servant of Christ and his Church, it was simply another opportunity to practice humility.
This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
A World War II mystery: Who dropped bombs on the Vatican?
As a neutral territory, Vatican City was largely spared from major bombing during World War II, while Rome was the target of raids by both Allied and Axis forces during Nazi Germany’s occupation of the city.
Except for one autumn night, around 8 p.m. on Nov. 5, 1943, when an unidentified plane dropped five bombs on the Vatican — four of which detonated — one narrowly missing St. Peter’s Basilica.
Luckily, no one was killed, but who dropped the bombs and why has it been shrouded in mystery ever since, with one historian offering a likely theory only in 2010?
What happened
Longtime Vatican archivist and World War II researcher Johan Ickx spoke to EWTN News about the event and other aspects of life at the Vatican during World War II.
Rome at the time was part of the Italian Social Republic, a German puppet state led by Benito Mussolini, and the Nazis had seized control of the capital nearly two months prior.
Ickx said it’s difficult to know exactly what life was like in the Vatican during that period. There were certainly fewer personnel, who were all priests, in the Secretariat of State.
And we know, the war historian said, that at a certain point, Pope Pius XII ordered the buildings not to be heated anymore, “as a sign of solidarity with the people outside” of Vatican City.
“We know also that there were people hidden in the Vatican during the war, and not a few,” he added. “These people were put at work in some way.”
Earlier that year, after the first Allied attacks on the city of Rome, the pope had written to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to ask Allied forces to spare the city “further pain and devastation” and to keep its treasured sites “from irreparable ruin.”
Roosevelt replied on June 16, 1943, saying: “Attacks against Italy are limited, to the extent humanly possible, to military objectives.”
“In the event it should be found necessary for Allied planes to operate over Rome, our aviators are thoroughly informed as to the location of the Vatican and have been specifically instructed to prevent bombs from falling within Vatican City,” the president wrote.
Despite this promise, heavy raids were carried out on Rome before it was captured by the Allies on June 4, 1944. Among these was the devastating bombing of July 19, 1943, in which thousands of civilians were killed.
The same day, after the raid ended, Pius XII and the future Pope Paul VI (then Secretariat of State Archbishop Giovanni Montini) traveled to the affected area, the San Lorenzo neighborhood, to hand out money to the victims gathered in front of the Church of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura.
“A few days [before the bombs were dropped on the Vatican] bombs were dropped on Trastevere in Rome,” Ickx recalled. “But the Vatican, that was something new. And it was also an international shock, really, because just until that day, one could say that the Vatican was saved from any military action.”
The bombs hit the governatorate — the government offices of the city state — the mosaic laboratory, and offices of officials of the Roman Curia, causing considerable damage, as visible in video footage from the period.
The evening the bombs fell, Archbishop Domenico Tardini, at the time head of the Secretariat of State’s section for relations with states, “was not in [his] office working and was just going up through the corridor to his office. Now, it was providential luck. If not, he would have been hurt,” Ickx said.
Some people were injured, but it was fortunate no one was killed by the bombs, which weighed 150 kilograms (330 pounds) each, Ickx noted. One of them detonated close enough to the Vatican basilica to blow out one of its back windows.
Pope Pius XII, reacting privately after the bombing, said: “There was more respect in Cairo, as the religious center of Islam, than in Rome. And more concretely, we are struck by the need to recognize... that there no longer exists, I do not say Christian conscience, but even the minimum of human understanding and a sense of loyalty in acting that should be enough to leave the successor of St. Peter in the narrow strip of land that still remains.”
Who did it
“The Vatican, of course, starts investigating immediately,” said Ickx, director of the historical archives of the section for relations with states and international organizations of the Secretariat of State.
The Secretariat of State began interviewing people about what they saw and heard. On a fragment of one of the bombs, they could make out just the final three letters of a name, “lli,” so one Vatican employee was tasked with making a list of all the arms and bomb producers that matched. But after making the list, there were still dozens that ended in “lli.”
“The other part of the investigation,” the historian noted, “is who did it? What plane was coming over? Was it a British one? Was it an American one, or was it an Italian or a German one? And the worst case would have been, of course, a German one … [because] Rome was in that moment … occupied by the Germans.”
“The fear in the Vatican was very high that Germans could have entered also the Vatican to take over everything and to … take the pope away and bring him elsewhere,” Ickx said.
The Secretariat of State questioned the United States, Britain, Italy, and Germany, who all denied involvement.
What followed was uncertainty, the historian explained.
“And the uncertainty is that what makes journalists happy,” he said, because “they can create history, they can create news, they can create scoops.”
He described one of the laughable “scoops” printed in an Italian newspaper a few days after the incident, with the headline “Stalin thanks Churchill for dropping the bombs in the Vatican.”
“Now it makes us laugh, because all of a sudden the Russians are also involved in the case,” Ickx said. “We see that is the normal war propaganda which is doing its work at that moment.”
For the Vatican, the mystery was “never solved.”
Only years later did a plausible theory emerge, proposed by the author Augusto Ferrara in his 2010 book “1943. Bombe sul Vaticano” (“1943. Bombs on the Vatican”).
In that book, Ferrara’s investigation uncovered that the bombs were probably dropped from a S.79 aircraft supplied by the Italian Social Republic, which had departed from the airport of Viterbo, about 50 miles north of Rome.
He also wrote that the attack was ordered by Roberto Farinacci, a fascist politician and adviser to Mussolini who wanted to destroy Vatican Radio, because he thought it was transmitting military information to the “enemy.”
Ickx called that “a plausible explanation.”
For four months, the Vatican was spared any major destruction, until March 1, 1944, when a British plane missed the objective of its bombardment and hit the Vatican wall.
This time, tragically, the incident did cause loss of life: a Vatican workman was killed and an Augustinian friar was injured. The blast also shattered the windows of the Palace of the Holy Office, the building housing the now-Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.