I am tremendously happy to initiate this blog that has as one of its main aims to honour the memory of the holy and saintly Pius XII, who I hope will soon be raised to the altars of the Church for the greater glory of God. I hope this blog will spread devotion to Pius XII and awareness of his many heroic and virtuous deeds, as well as being a platform for the dissemination of his many important writings, speeches and encyclicals, so pertinent to many of the problems facing society and the Church today.
I commence my blog with an interview with Sister Margherita Marchione (Feb 19,1922- ), who for the past 20 years has dedicated her life exclusively to researching the life of Pius XII, which has led to the publication of 10 works. She is a member of the Religious Teachers Fillipini, who sheltered Jews in their convents in Rome during WWII, and in fact it was through coincidentally learning this fact in the 90's that her interest in learning more about Pope Pius XII's life was really enkindled. Sister Margherita disclosed in 2011 that she was suffering from intestinal cancer. I do not know her current state of health, but considering her advanced age her encounter with the Lord could very well not be very far off, so please keep her in your prayers, or as she asked via email "Prega per me a Pio XII " (Pray to Pius XII for me).
Sister Margherita Marchione met Pius XII in 1957 in Rome, accompanied by Pius XII's niece Elena Rossignani Pacelli (it would be interesting to know how these two were able to meet!), and it is clearly evident from the interview that the sister's encounter with Pius XII left her with an indelible impression that would be engraved in her soul for the rest of her life. Also - it is worth noting that Pius XII was regarded as a saintly man DURING his life (in fact, many council fathers during Vatican II called for the pontiff's canonization), and it was only years later that his reputation started to be smeared, specially starting from the performance of the play "The Deputy" in 1963 by Rolf Hochhuth (I'll probably devote a blog post to this topic).
Without further ado, here is the interview with Sister Margherita from Zenit...
ROME, JUNE 7, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The future Pope Pius XII enjoyed spending his summer vacations at the beach of Santa Marinella.
Last Saturday, a bronze bust of him was placed at that beach, to honor the World War II Pope and all the "righteous of the world."
Before being placed at the site, the bust was presented to Benedict XVI. The honor of this task was held by Sister Margherita Marchione, of the community of Religious Teachers Filippini. She is one of the world's principal biographers of Pius XII.
"So many pictures were taken of me in a few seconds," Sister Marchione recounted to ZENIT while she looked at the images of her brief meeting with the Pontiff.
This nun, born the daughter of Italian immigrants in New Jersey in 1922, has a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University. In the last 15 years, she has published 10 book in English and Italian on Pius XII...(Read the complete interview here)
