War produces heroes of all kinds. Some are the ones who pick up a rifle, take the controls of a fighter plane, or climb into the turret of a tank and take the fight to the enemy. Some shed sweat, not blood, moving the supplies forward; the gas, bullets and beans that keep a modern army moving. There are the medics who succor the wounded, the officers who plan the actions, and many more.
And then there are, at times, brave civilians who form resistance movements, who form organized undergrounds, who face capture, torture, and death with every action they take. These are the too-often unsung heroes of war, and on this day, when we observe the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (V-E) day as well as the Catholic Church's election of the first American pope, it seems appropriate to remember Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, the Irish priest who was the Scarlet Pimpernel of World War 2.
Monsignor O’Flaherty, the son of a steward at the Killarney golf course, was fluent in Italian and German, held three doctorates and was an amateur golf champion. But his real claim to fame was as the “Vatican Pimpernel” in Nazi-occupied Rome in the second World War. As the lead behind the “Rome Escape Line”, he saved the lives of six and a half thousand prisoners of war, partisans and Jews. And he did it all with considerable panache from his HQ in of all places the German College, nestled right beside Saint Peter’s Basilica.
There is a great movie made about Monsignor O'Flaherty, "The Scarlet and the Black." Gregory Peck plays Monsignor O'Flaherty opposite Christopher Plummer as the German Colonel Herbert Kappler, with Sir John Gielgud as Pope Pius XII. There is a great scene in which Gregory Peck strolls along the inside of the white line marking the Vatican boundary, knowing that the German troops are watching him but are unable to take any action.
But Monsignor O'Flaherty did much more than troll the Nazis by parading just out of their reach.
He smuggled out Jewish people disguised as nuns and monks, passed partisans off as Swiss guards and hid the thousands of prisoners of war who flocked to him on the steps of St Peter’s. They were seeking the sanctuary of the church at a time when Hitler recognised the Vatican’s neutrality, all under the noses of Nazi guards. He was also fond of the odd disguise himself – once as a coalman to evade a Nazi raid on a palazzo. He was even rumoured to have dressed as a nun.
6,500 people, more or less, were spared capture, torture and death at the hands of the Nazis through the network set up by Monsignor O'Flaherty. His primary opponent, the Gestapp officer SS-Obersturmbannführer Herbert Kappler, was the one who gave the Monsignor the title of the "Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican." In one of history's famously ironic twists, Monsignor O'Flaherty regularly visited Herbert Kappler after the war, and when Kappler converted to Catholicism in 1959, Monsignor O'Flaherty baptized him.
Now that's taking charitable forgiveness to a whole new level.
See Also: Breaking: Habemus Papam! The Catholic Church Has Its First American Pope
Reflections on V-E Day: History, Men, Courage, Liberty
After the war, Monsignor O'Flaherty received several awards from the grateful Allies. The United States awarded him the Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm, while the United Kingdom named him a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Canada and Australia also recognized Monsignor O'Flaherty's heroism.
Monsignor O'Flaherty suffered a stroke in 1960 and returned to Ireland to live with his sister. That is where he was on October 30, 1963, when he died, aged 65. The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican is interred in the cemetery of the Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church in Cahersiveen.
There is, today, a Hugh O'Flaherty Memorial Society. In 2013, they set up a permanent memorial to Monsignor O'Flaherty in his hometown of Killarney. The Society's statement on that reads:
Through the unveiling of the Hugh O'Flaherty Memorial on the 30th October, 2013, the Memorial Committee has achieved one of our key objectives which was to create a permanent and fitting tribute to him in his home town of Killarney. This and our other activities will help to raise greater awareness of his great deeds with young and old in the community, in Ireland and abroad.
We hope that this and future generations will be inspired by Hugh O'Flaherty's incredible deeds and example and will in turn play their own part in making our world a better place.
On this historic day, when we recognize the election of the first American Pope as well as the end of a horrendous conflict and the heroism of the people who fought to free Europe from Hitler's grip, it's worthwhile to consider the life of a man who had a foot in each of these worlds: Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, Irishman, priest, hero, the Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican, and man who saved many from imprisonment and death and yet had the personal richness of spirit to not only forgive, but to befriend his former oppressor.
