He was posted to Haiti, Santo Domingo, Egypt, and Czechosolvakia. In 1934, O’Flaherty was the first Irishman to be appointed a notary of the Holy Office.
O’Flaherty declines to take sides
Hugh O’Flaherty was a fierce Irish nationalist, having formed his opinions when as a seminarian he witnessed atrocities by British Black and Tans, and saw four of his old friends killed.
Remembering these dire events, he didn’t take sides when World War II began in 1939.
“I didn’t know which side to believe until they started rounding up the Jews in Rome.
They treated them like beasts…It got worse and worse, and I knew then which side I had to believe,” O’Flaherty said.
O’Flaherty tours prison camps
In the early years of World War II, O'Flaherty toured prisoner-of-war (POW) camps in Italy trying to get news of prisoners reported missing in action, so as to notify their families through Vatican Radio if he found them alive.
When Benito Mussolini was overthrown on July 25, 1943, his replacement, Gen. Pietro Badoglio, sought peace with the Allies, attaining an armistice on Sept. 3. 1943.
One month later, after Italy surrendered to Allied forces, it declared war on Nazi Germany,
which had occupation troops stationed in Rome and throughout
the country.
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