Could Vatican have saved Monte Cassino from WWII bombing?
February 14, 2024
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CWN Editor's Note: A newly discovered historical document has raised questions about whether more active Vatican diplomacy could have averted the bombing that devastated the historic Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino.
Shortly before Allied forces bombed the monastery, an official at the Vatican Secretariat of State warned that German troops were ignoring a promise to treat the ancient building as neutral territory. The official, Msgr. Armando Lombardi, wrote that “the Secretariat of State took no interest in the matter.”
Convinced that German troops had set up artillery positions inside the monastery, American and British air strikes pummeled the building, killing 250 people.
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