Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty honoured in Ireland

[Terry_Washingto]

According to today’s Irish Independent( www.irishindependent.ie.com, Nov 12, 2012) , the late Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, “The Scarlet Pimpernel Of The Vatican”- played by the late Gregory Peck, himself of Irish Catholic descendance in the 1983 TV movie “The Scarlet and the Black”- was officially honoured in his native Ireland for saving thousands of Jews( more than Oskar Schindler or Raoul Wallenberg) and Allied POWs( including of course British, despite his admittedly anti-British sentiments - several of his closest friends were shot by the “Black and Tans”( see Wikipedia entries for “Hugh O’Flaherty” and “Black and Tans”) during the struggle for Irish independence 1919-1921).

To my mind, never mind about officially honouring him by the Irish Government( during his lifetime, O’Flaherty was decorated by the British and US Governments and was even instrumental in the reception of his one-time nemesis SS Colonel Herbert Kappler into the Catholic Church in 1959- O’Flaherty really WAS one of the “treasures of the Church” as Pope Pius XII-played in the film by the late John Gielgud), if the Vatican can beatify Sara Salkahazi for saving the lives of those threatened by extermination or persecution, then why no do the same for the long dead O’Flaherty???

Terry

 

[april32010]

if the Vatican can beatify Sara Salkahazi for saving the lives of those threatened by extermination or persecution, then why no do the same for the long dead O’Flaherty???

Blessed Sara Salkahazi was martyred .

 

[Dale_M]

Here is a direct link to the news article
independent.ie/national-news/vaticans-scarlet-pimpernel-honoured-3291008.html

 

[Mintaka]

Now is the time when we explain the internal politics of being in the Resistance…

As we know, Good Pope Pius was running the entire Catholic Church in Italy as a resistance organization hiding Jews and POWs. This involved millions of people.

Monsignor O’Flaherty started his own similar but much smaller organization, apparently because he didn’t know about the papal efforts, since the Pope was keeping everything so extremely secret. Apparently some Vatican Italian hinting went on, but of course, Italian hinting is very difficult to interpret. So O’Flaherty went his own way, and imbued his organization with his own flamboyance – which was fun, but attracted German attention.

At this point, it became critical for members of the bigger organization to distance themselves from Msgr. O’Flaherty, because he was putting them in danger; and it became impossible for the Pope to fold O’Flaherty’s group into the larger group, because it would have exposed the big organization to danger if visible guy O’Flaherty had been captured and tortured.

Fortunately for everybody, neither O’Flaherty’s organization nor the larger organization was ever blown in a substantial way. It even looks as if the larger organization were able to make use of O’Flaherty’s flamboyance, because the Germans could tell themselves that O’Flaherty’s tiny group was the only one doing stuff.

But it didn’t make him a ton of friends among the members of the other Resistance organization, particularly in the Vatican, because he’d been endangering their lives for years and years, and was not noticeably regretful about it even after he’d found out the truth after the war. (Though to be fair, he’d always been more careful than it looked, which was the secret of his group’s success.)

Unfortunately, during the Eighties, the TV movie adaptation of his book was used to spread the meme that Good Pope Pius had sat on his butt being afraid of Germans, instead of pointing out all the other stuff going on behind O’Flaherty’s and the German’s backs.

O’Flaherty was a good man and a good priest in general, and he was legitimately a hero; but he doesn’t seem to have been an obvious candidate for a saint. If people feel devotion to him, that could change, of course.

 

[Catholic1954]

According to today’s Irish Independent( www.irishindependent.ie.com, Nov 12, 2012) , the late Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, “The Scarlet Pimpernel Of The Vatican”- played by the late Gregory Peck, himself of Irish Catholic descendance in the 1983 TV movie “The Scarlet and the Black”- was officially honoured in his native Ireland for saving thousands of Jews( more than Oskar Schindler or Raoul Wallenberg) and Allied POWs( including of course British, despite his admittedly anti-British sentiments - several of his closest friends were shot by the “Black and Tans”( see Wikipedia entries for “Hugh O’Flaherty” and “Black and Tans”) during the struggle for Irish independence 1919-1921).

To my mind, never mind about officially honouring him by the Irish Government( during his lifetime, O’Flaherty was decorated by the British and US Governments and was even instrumental in the reception of his one-time nemesis SS Colonel Herbert Kappler into the Catholic Church in 1959- O’Flaherty really WAS one of the “treasures of the Church” as Pope Pius XII-played in the film by the late John Gielgud), if the Vatican can beatify Sara Salkahazi for saving the lives of those threatened by extermination or persecution, then why no do the same for the long dead O’Flaherty???

Terry

Someone needs to start his cause for canonization and let’s see where it goes.

 

[CaptFun]

According to today’s Irish Independent( www.irishindependent.ie.com, Nov 12, 2012) , the late Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, “The Scarlet Pimpernel Of The Vatican”- played by the late Gregory Peck, himself of Irish Catholic descendance in the 1983 TV movie “The Scarlet and the Black”- was officially honoured in his native Ireland for saving thousands of Jews( more than Oskar Schindler or Raoul Wallenberg) and Allied POWs( including of course British, despite his admittedly anti-British sentiments - several of his closest friends were shot by the “Black and Tans”( see Wikipedia entries for “Hugh O’Flaherty” and “Black and Tans”) during the struggle for Irish independence 1919-1921).

To my mind, never mind about officially honouring him by the Irish Government( during his lifetime, O’Flaherty was decorated by the British and US Governments and was even instrumental in the reception of his one-time nemesis SS Colonel Herbert Kappler into the Catholic Church in 1959- O’Flaherty really WAS one of the “treasures of the Church” as Pope Pius XII-played in the film by the late John Gielgud), if the Vatican can beatify Sara Salkahazi for saving the lives of those threatened by extermination or persecution, then why no do the same for the long dead O’Flaherty???

Terry

Thank you Terry!

The Scarlet and the Black (it used to be posted in its entirety for free on the internet … possibly on YouTube … but you had to play it part by part) is perhaps the BEST Catholic movie I have ever seen.

I agree with you. ** Fr. Hugh O’Flaherty** should be beatified as a saint. He is probably already a saint … and maybe he lacks the requisite miracle or something, as he was not martyred (at least technically). But sometimes I wonder about how saints are picked for beatification.

I loved John Paul II and Mother Teresa – but I am wondering how **Father Junipero Serra **…

*… who trudged along on a bad leg for thousands of miles,

… founding missions all over California and
… peacefully converting the natives wherever he went
… and naming all the towns in the chain of missions after Angels, Saints and Our Blessed Mother
… and the road that connected them all “the El Camino Real” (Highway of the King) in honor of Jesus …
*
… is still only “Blessed” and not St. Junipero after all this time. At least he should be named a saint at the same time. O’Flaherty too. And Bishop Sheen whose many volumes of books and tapes and TV shows evangelized millions.

Some more "non clergy’ folks who have not been martyred but lived exemplary lives would be nice too. While I’m suggesting.

We do have St. Joseph of course (father, working man, husband, “just man”).

But unless one has had the Blessed Mother appear to a lay person, non-martyrs are scarce. Married laity scarcer. Not many Americans, especially native born ones and we’ve been a country since 1776 (when incidentally Fr. Serra first said Mass at San Juan Capistrano Mission in Southern California!).

I don’t have a candidate in mind offhand. But I’d serve on the search committee.

Meanwhile :tiphat: thanks for the update on Fr. Hugh O’Flaherty’s cause (or lack of same).

I paraphrase from the movie “Scarlet and the Black.” O’Flaherty is being asked about the risks he is taking in saving the Jews and others from the Nazis, he replies:

" … when I was an altar boy my pastor used to tell me … “Hugh -** DO what is RIGHT! Come hell or high water. And God will give you the upper hand!”**

I love the quote. Even if it turned out to be a Hollywood one. I hope it’s actually O’Flaherty’s because it sounds so courageous and faithful. And simple and right.

 

[Terry_Washingto]

Blessed Sara Salkahazi was martyred .

True enough, but O’Flaherty risked his life and would no doubt have accepted the" crown of martyrdom" that Blessed Sara Salkahazi now wears had he been captured by the SS!
There are precedents (St Maximilian Kolbe, the Blessed Martyrs of Nowgrodek, several of the 108 beatified Polish Martyrs of WWII) for opening the causes for beatification and ultimate canonization for those Catholics(lay, clergy , religious of both sexes) who risk or eventually give their lives in order to save others.

Terry

 

[AndrewKappler]

He should be beatified he is already in heaven honoured

 

[CaptFun]

He should be beatified he is already in heaven honoured

Welcome to Catholic Answers Forums and thanks for the comment.

I couldn’t help but notice your name - Kappler - is the same as Colonel Herbert Kappler (the antagonist in the Scarlet and Black as the Nazi commander - but (spoiler) an eventual convert to Catholicism thanks to his sponsor and former rival … Msr. O’Flaherty.

That surprising conclusion to the story brought tears to my eyes.

From a 2011 story on a non-fiction book on the subject called “Hide and Seek”.

dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-1374534/The-heroic-Vatican-priest-ran-rings-round-Nazi-colonel.html

… The next months were busy as thousands of prisoners were repatriated. Whether O’Flaherty, as part of his humane principles, subsequently extended his help to German prisoners on the run is not reported in these pages.

But after the war ended in 1945 he was surprised to receive a letter from the ex-Gestapo chief Herbert Kappler, then in prison awaiting trial for his role in the massacre of 335 Italian jail-prisoners, who were shot as reprisals for a Partisan bombing in Rome - ten Italians for every German soldier killed (there were 33).

They corresponded and the priest went to visit Kappler several times. The prisoner had two requests - to be accepted into the Catholic Church and for O’Flaherty to be present at his execution. In due course the forgiving Monsignor received him into the church - ‘Now we are sort of pals,’ he told a friend. But the execution never took place.

Kappler got life imprisonment, the maximum sentence under Italian law. Long after O’Flaherty had returned to Ireland to die, Kappler, then fatally ill with cancer, was spirited from hospital one night by a much younger German pen friend, who had married him in jail.

He was driven to Germany and died there a few months later.
The story of Hugh O’Flaherty has been told in other books (even filmed), but this is a new angle on it as a duel between the Irish Monsignor and the Gestapo Colonel.
Unusually, it ended in reconciliation - which makes this a heartening story.

Read more: dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-1374534/The-heroic-Vatican-priest-ran-rings-round-Nazi-colonel.html#ixzz3EOJ2md2U
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Anyway, I agree with you that O’Flaherty is likely already canonized (in heaven) … but like others, I’ll rejoice on the day he is formally canonized on earth as St. Hugh. And I think he will be.

 

[CyrilSebastian]

In the website Monsignor Hugh O’Flahtery: Hero of the Vatican, a statement expressed:
"And a person's nationality, religion, or politics didn't matter to him."