A new book based on research in the Vatican’s secret archives shows
that the Vatican’s representative in Turkey took extraordinary measures
to stop the genocidal campaign against Armenians in the early 20th
century.Archbishop Angelo Mario Dolci (who would later be made a cardinal), while acting as apostolic delegate in Constantinople, wrote to Turkish authorities in 1915 to argue against the genocide, writes researcher Valentina Karakhanian.
When his pleas fell on deaf ears, the papal legate tried to rally other diplomats to defend the Armenians—and even went beyond his brief, approaching political figures and circulating private documents in an attempt to stop the campaign.
“The Vatican did what it could, and in some cases what it could not, because the nuncio went to meet with people who were outside the diplomatic sphere.”
Archbishop Dolci wrote vivid reports on the genocide, and Pope Benedict XV was moved to involve himself in the effort to stop it, Karakhanian reports.
The book also shows that Archbishop Dolci understood the Turkish campaign that began in 1915 as a bid to rid the country not only of Armenians but also of other Christians, including Assyrians, Chaldeans, Melkites, and Maronites.
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