The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
11 January 2004
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Heroes of the Vatican
Fr Flanagan (left) and Fr Snedden with Allied officers in front of St Peter’s after Rome was liberated.
By DOROTHY COUP
Their code names were Horace and Fanny, two New Zealand priests who were key figures in the Vatican underground during World War II.
One would later become a bishop, the other a monsignor, but when war broke out, young priests Owen Snedden and John Flanagan were doing postgraduate studies at Urban College in Rome.
Their heroic efforts in the Vatican underground, which hid more than 3000 escaped Allied prisoners of war during the nine-month Rome Occupation in 1944, are recounted in a newly-published book, Fighting With The Enemy, New Zealand POWs and the Italian Resistance, by Susan Jacobs.
The two priests, who were fluent in Italian, helped Allied servicemen by billeting them with Italians prepared to take the risk of harbouring the escapees, and by taking them food and clothing.
“ The priestly soutane was a perfect cover for concealing food, clothing, boots, cigarettes and messages for the thousands of escaped prisoners who were hiding in Rome,” wrote Mrs Jacobs.
“ It also concealed the identities of prisoners themselves, who for the first and only time in their lives were encouraged to don the cloth by their genuinely religious counterparts in order to be conducted to a secure refuge, or to receive medical or dental treatment.”
Fighting With the Enemy tells some stories of the 450 Kiwi prisoners of war in Italy. They survived on their wits and with the help of many rural Italians who risked their lives to feed, clothe and shelter them. As a result many friendships were formed with Italian families who were formerly “the enemy”.
Mrs Jacobs said there were also “fantastic Italian priests” who helped the New Zealanders.
“ The New Zealand soldiers, whether they were Catholic or not, had enduring respect and gratitude to them,” she said during an interview in her Auckland home.
Mrs Jacobs explained that, in some rural communities, “what the priest said went”.
Priests risked their lives to help the Resistance and would ask parishioners to take in escaped Allied prisoners. She said at least two Kiwi POWs later named a son after an Italian priest.
Because the Germans had agreed to respect the extra-territorial status of the Vatican, it became a sanctuary for persecuted people, including many Jews, she said.
This also made the Resistance work of the New Zealand priests easier by their semblance of protected status.
However, the situation was fraught with danger as the Nazis had no qualms about arresting and executing priests if caught red-handed.
Both Fr Flanagan and Fr Snedden deprived themselves in order to help others, said Mrs Jacobs.
“ Photos show the frightening amount of weight both Snedden and Flanagan lost over their nine-month ordeal. At one point Snedden reportedly weighed just seven stone (45 kg). Yet those who came into contact with them reported them as being consistently cheerful and helpful.”
Both men received the MBE for their services to Allied prisoners during their years in Rome.
New Zealanders at home were also grateful to “Horace.”
The rich, deep tones that in later years would become known on Catholic broadcasts were eagerly awaited when Fr Snedden broadcast five times a week on Vatican Radio the names of New Zealand prisoners of war in Italy.
He also used his broadcasts to convey disguised messages from escaped prisoners to their relatives.
This service was an offshoot of the Vatican Information Bureau set up by Pius XII to gather news of prisoners of war, refugees and displaced peoples to pass on to anxious relatives all over the world.
Mrs Jacobs’ research was helped by another priest, Fr James, the parish priest of Passo Corese, north of Rome.
As Greg Walsh, he was a student in her Italian classes in 1987. She contacted him before going to Italy and he introduced her to friends with whom she stayed. He also went with her to the Vatican archives but they found there was still an embargo on some archival material.
Mrs Jacobs says: “In war there is incredible inhumanity, but also there is unbelievable humanity.”