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March 13, 2007
Must-watch of the day. Or night.
Or whatever.
Found this via The Hermeneutic of Continuity, Fr. Tim Finigan's great blog. Fr. Tim found it on a new UK Catholic blog called Obnoxiously Pious.
What this seems to be is the last part of a documentary film on Pius XII, which, in turn, seems to be part of a serious of Italian documentaries on the Popes of the 20th century. You might end up getting very angry at YouTube member Darsham, because he has uploaded, it seems, all of them, and the archival footage is fascinating, and you might not be able to stop watching.
This on, the "Last Years of Pius XII," begins with the canonization of Maria Goretti, and even though we all know her mother and her murderer were both present at the canonization, it is startling to see them on film. There is some weird footage of Pius doing some television - well, actually it's rather Fulton Sheenish in its effect, so perhaps it's just the time, and the fact that I've never seen Pius XII actually moving around and speaking on film before. There's footage of his last days, even on his deathbed, the funeral and the casket, being lowered, rather awkwardly on a crane, into the vault.
And here's another brief clip of interest - about 2 minutes, uploaded by another user, of Pius XI.
Posted by Amy Welborn | Permalink
Comments
Wow. Thank you SO much Amy for informing us of this invaluable documentary. I've always admired Pius XII, and this makes him seem a little more real to me. Hope he gets canonized soon!
Posted by: Veronica at Mar 13, 2007 11:09:44 PM
wow, this is great! And it's great that so many others are at you tube too. Thanks!
Posted by: abigail at Mar 13, 2007 11:46:36 PM
Watching the funeral footage reminded me that the second anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II, April 2, is just about three weeks away. My heart still has an ache.
Posted by: Fr. Stephanos, O.S.B. at Mar 14, 2007 1:18:03 AM
am I the only one seeing hints of a quazi schismatic documentary?
Pius XII - "the last prince of God"?
The overall text, and choice of music was really peculiar...
Very interesting though! The footage stands on its own as a historical treasure.
Posted by: Andrew at Mar 14, 2007 4:45:35 AM
Andrew:
If you watch the whole thing, near the end, as it discusses his death, the narration comments something like, "elected next would be a country priest" or some such. So the "prince" is in contrast to the more down-to-earth style of J23.
Posted by: amy at Mar 14, 2007 7:30:14 AM
Fascinating. He does seem more real now, and actually seems much friendlier witht the crowds than I would have expected from only seeing him in still pictures and by description. He has a wonderful smile and looks very kind I think.
Posted by: thomas tucker at Mar 14, 2007 11:52:38 AM
The English captions are hilariously bad, but the footage is really a wonderful snapshot of the church in that time. Pope Pius died when I was 12, and I remember that event, along with the subsequent election of John XXIII, quite vividly. Along with my classmates, I wondered why the Cardinals elected "such an old man" as Pope, and thought Roncalli an odd, if musical, name (most of us had Irish surnames). Little did we know ...
Posted by: Patricia Gonzalez at Mar 14, 2007 12:27:58 PM
A prayer for the canonization of J23, aka. Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, the "country priest" who was humbly used by God!
Posted by: Brigid at Mar 14, 2007 2:24:07 PM
Wonderful video. I liked the music at the end; fitting end for such a great Prince.
Posted by: Paul N at Mar 15, 2007 8:45:21 AM
Makes it even sadder that he is still being pilloried, as in last Sunday's New York Times Book Review....a real hatchet job.
Posted by: mr at Mar 15, 2007 11:32:13 AM
