Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty
More Work.
With the end of the war in sight, you'd think that O’Flaherty would sit back and relax for a while. Not a bit of it. He was soon visiting POW camps again, only this time the prisoners were Italian and German. Just as he had before, he kept an eye on welfare and conditions, gathered names, and helped Italian citizens get news of their missing or imprisoned relatives. He flew to South Africa to visit prison camps there, and to Jerusalem to help many of the Jews he had saved with their immigration to Israel. And he found the time to perform the marriage of Mrs. Chevalier’s daughter Gemma to British Corporal Kenneth Sands.1946 saw O’Flaherty promoted to a higher position in the Holy Office. But the tales told about his work and the regard with which the people held him (some called him a saint) unfortunately hurt his career more than helped it. Those Vatican officials who had always been annoyed by his unorthodox style were doubly offended now. Even though he never sought recognition, and would get almost angry if called a hero, O’Flaherty had to fight backbiting and politics for the rest of his career. This tired and disappointed him, but he didn’t let it discourage him too badly.
He was busy with other matters anyway. When golfing near Ciampino one day in ‘46, he had stumbled on a half-starved group of Central European refugees squatting in a ruined village. He provided food and clothing until the men found work, fixed up the buildings, taught the refugees about the Church, baptized them, and virtually adopted the whole village. For the next 12 years, he would visit every Sunday and say Mass.
After the War.
According to Derry’s records, the organization saved some 3,925 prisoners-of-war and refugees – British, American, Russian, Greek, South African and twenty other nationalities. Since O’Flaherty never kept records, nobody knows exactly how many Jews, anti-Fascists, and others were rescued in addition. For his work, O’Flaherty was made a Commander of the British Empire, and awarded the US Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm. (All such decorations were sent to his sister in Ireland, to be kept in a drawer.) Italy offered him a lifelong pension, but he refused to use it. Sam Derry was given the Distinguished Service Order, and eventually retired a lieutenant-colonel. Mrs. Chevalier received the British Empire Medal, and many other members of the organization were decorated or commended.
Ludwig Koch escaped Rome but was shot by Italian partisans as he tried to reach Milan. Colonel Herbert Kappler was tried for war crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment. He served his time in Italy’s Gaeta prison, where for the next decade, he had only one regular visitor.
Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty came to see him every month.
And in March of 1959, Kappler was baptized into the Catholic Church by the Irish priest.