The diaries of Pope John XXIII, which are being published in full next week in Rome, confirm that he regarded Benito Mussolini, Italy's Fascist dictator, as a man who had "committed errors" but had none the less brought Italy "great benefits". As Angelo Roncalli, John XXIII served as Apostolic Delegate to Turkey and Greece in the 1930s, before Pope Pius XII sent him to Paris as Nuncio (ambassador) in 1944, during the Second World War. In 1953 he was appointed Patriarch of Venice, and five years later - much to his own surprise - he succeeded Pius XII as pontiff.
Both before and during the war Roncalli was credited with helping to save thousands of Jewish refugees in Europe, to the point where some Jews consider him to have been a "Righteous Gentile". However an entry in July 1943 in his voluminous diaries - to be presented next Tuesday at the Gonfalone Oratory in Rome - records his reaction to the fall of Mussolini in tones of regret.
"The gravest news of the day is the withdrawal of Mussolini from power" he wrote. "The Duce's gesture is I believe an act of wisdom which does him honour. No, I will not throw stones at him. For him too, sic transit gloria mundi. But the great good which he did for Italy remains. His withdrawal is an expiation for some of his sins. Dominus parcat illi (May the Lord have mercy on him)".
The future Pope also records his revulsion at the murder of Mussolini by partisans - "so-called patriots" - in April 1945 and the hanging of his body upside down in a Milan piazza, calling it a "sad day". The diaries also reveal that in 1941 Pius XII asked him whether "his silence over the behaviour of the Nazis" was being "judged badly".
Archbishop Loris Capovilla, who was John XXIII's long serving secretary, said Pius XII had asked for the then Monsignor Roncalli's advice on how to react to the Nazi persecution of the Jews because he "respected his judgement". He noted that John XXIII, who insigated the reforms of the Second Vatican Council but did not live to see them completed, had held compassionate and humanitarian views throughout his career both as a Vatican diplomat and as Pope.
Archbishop Capovilla recalled that John XXIII had created the first black cardinal in 1960, a reference to Cardinal Laurian Rugambwa of Tanganyika. "If Barack Obama is about to become the US President it is partly because of that" he told La Stampa.
In 1924, when elections marked by intimidation and ballot-rigging brought Mussolini and the Fascists to power, the future Pope wrote: "In my conscience as a priest and a Christian, I do not feel I can vote for the Fascists. Of one thing I am certain: the salvation of Italy cannot come from Mussolini, even though he may be gifted. His goals may perhaps be good and correct, but the means he uses to realise them are wicked and contrary to the Gospel."
In 1936, after the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, Roncalli wrote of Mussolini that "a hidden force is guiding him and protecting Italy". However after the Second World War he described Mussolini's dictatorship as an "immense calamity" which had brought "great sorrow to the Italian people".
John XXIII was beatified in 2000, together with Pope Pius IX, and is remembered in Italy as "Il Papa Buono" ("The Good Pope") or "The Smiling Pope" for his human warmth and kindness. Born near Bergamo in Northern Italy, he was ordained in 1904, and was drafted into the Italian Army in the First World War, serving as chaplain and stretcher-bearer.
In 1921 he was appointed head of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith before beginning his diplomatic career. It is said that he had such little expectation of being elected Pope at the conclave which followed the death of Pius XII in 1958 that he arrived in Rome with a return train ticket to Venice in his pocket.
He died of cancer in May 1963, and his last recorded words were: "I had the great grace to be born into a Christian family, modest and poor, but with the fear of the Lord. My time on earth is drawing to a close. But Christ lives on and continues his work in the Church."
After his beatification, his body was moved from the crypt of St Peter's to the basilica above to be venerated. His remains were found to be unusually well-preserved, though the Vatican said this was not a miracle but was due to his sealed triple coffin.
Selections from John XXIII's diaries, which he began writing as a young man, have already been published as "Journal of a Soul".
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(Source: TTO)