Seems British Foreign Office just released documents linking Pacelli’s consent to a plot to assassinate Hitler as early as 1939.

Codenamed the black orchestra, black being the habit worn by priests involved with catholic generals. Led by Canaris, admiral and close friend of the pope when he was still apostolic nunzio in Munich.

http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1999/marzo/25/ATTENTATO_HITLER_VOLUTO_PIO_XII_co_0_9903252237.shtml

@Natalie and Canon,

That is why African nations are such a good model to follow, a shining example of peaceful co existence, mutual respect and life appreciation…….not! If it was as you describe it they would not be escaping from it now would they!

When Kitten says he wants so to breathe life back into Strait Street, does he mean all this?

Because I’m confused.

Greetings from Majestic V18.

I used to work on Palace Square in late Sixties/early Seventies and had office windows overlooking Strait Street.

Sometimes fights broke out in the afternoon and we had a ringside view from the back windows.

The US or Brit shore patrols used to wade in from the start flailing nightsticks, with Malta’s finest standing on the corner waiting for the mayhem to die down before intervening.

I can’t stand the fairy tales about how romantic the Gut (or Manwel Dimech, Sette Giugno riots) was when in realty it was as you so very well described it.

Looks like we are in for a Soviet-style rewriting of history complete with air-brushing Trotsky out of the picture.

[Daphne – I’m from a Valletta family, Lestrade. There is no way I can have any illusions about Strait Street. I don’t remember it in the 1960s, but I certainly remember it in the 1970s.]

The timing of the Good Samaritan reading this year and the Pontiff’s actions (as broght up by Ms Caruana Galizia herself) couldn’t have been better.

And, at least, the homily I heard that Sunday was quite good too. The priest, in his sometimes gruff but straight-to-the-point way, said that he didn’t want to go into the politics of the push-back situation, but also that the well-timed meesage of the reading could not have been clearer.

Naughty.

True Daphne. And it will not save the immigrants in Malta either. But it doesn’t mean that the Church should not speak out against the racism that a great part of its congregation is harbouring, even if it means that fewer people attend the services.

It should speak out about the hypocrisy of those who love hearing the parable of the Good Samaritan but who then applaud the push-back policy and would rather stand on a bus than sit next to a black person.

Even if it holds no power over anyone any more, it should not make itself even more irrelevant than it already is by ignoring such a situation, especially after the Pontiff himself brought the issue to the fore. I liked the way Fr. Rene Camilleri tackled the point in ‘Iswed fuq l-Abjad’ (skip to 50:30 unless you want to watch Manwel Micallef): https://www.facebook.com/iswedfuqlabjad?hc_location=timeline

Hate to continue sidetracking, but there is evidence that the role of the Catholic Church and the Pope in WWII is indeed under-appreciated, mostly because 1) quite a lot happened behind the scenes and 2) few appreciate that the Pope had his hands tied with the danger he was probably in:

http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/17th-april-1964/1/new-evidence-in-favour-of-pope-pius

http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/documents-reveal-pius-xii-saved-11-000-roman-jews?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zenit%2Fenglish+%28ZENIT+English%29&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/08/the-real-pius-xii

Quite a lot here: http://popepiusxiiandthejews.blogspot.com/