"Under The Roman Sky"-New Pius XII Film

Vatican City, Apr 9, 2010 / 10:29 am (CNA/EWTN News)

While resting up at Castel Gandolfo, the Holy Father will be taking the time to catch a film on Friday. The Pontiff will watch "Under the Roman Sky,” a movie about Hitler's treatment of the Jews in Rome and his attempt to kidnap Pope Pius XII.

As the Pope recovers from a taxing Holy Week schedule, during which he appeared for public celebrations nearly every day, he will have the opportunity to relax and take in the movie featuring the American actor James Cromwell as Pope Pius XII, who was the subject of a kidnap plot by Adolph Hitler.

The mini-series is set in the streets of Rome during the Nazi occupation. According to Italy's AGI News, the plot develops along the course of nine months, and features Jews being taken from the ghetto and a failed attempt by the Nazis to abduct the Pope.

The film, made by the Italian production company Lux Vide, also illustrates the Church's efforts to protect and save Jews during the war, the very subject that raised a considerable amount controversy after Pope Benedict declared Pius XII "Venerable" on Dec. 19, 2009.

Lux Vide has produced other biographical films on Popes John Paul II, Paul VI and John XXIII as well as many other saints and biblical figures.

The Holy Father will settle in for the viewing at 5:30 this afternoon in the Swiss Room of Castel Gandolfo.

Related Links:

Pope Pius XII-Under The Roman Sky

Pope Pius XII Film Facebook Support Page

Pope Benedict XVI attends screening of film

Pius XII development website

IMDB movie entry

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"Benedict XVI needs to be acknowledged as having instructed a new sensibility around this difficult, critical theme, and of having done as much as was possible to exercise ... a very rigorous pastoral, but also canonical and moral, responsibility."

Update regarding Polish deaths:

The Holy Father expressed his sorrow over the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and those accompanying him on a flight to Russia on Saturday morning. Pope Benedict remembered all of those who died and implored "a special blessing to the people of Poland from God omnipotent."

According to CNN, President Kaczynski, his wife, top members of the Polish government, army and several Church authorities were on the plane that went down just seconds from landing at the airport of Smolensk, Russia. The aircraft apparently clipped some trees with a wing as it made its way through heavy fog. Reports vary on the number of people on the plane, but counts run from 89 to 132 people, none of whom survived.

The delegation was headed to the small village of Katyn, a few kilometers from Smolensk, in a landmark visit to observe the 70th anniversary of the execution of more than 20,000 Polish officers during World War II.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his telegram to the acting President of the Polish Parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, that it was with "profound sorrow" that he learned of the deaths of those who were on their way to Katyn.

He remembered the president, the exiled ex-president of the Republic Ryszard Kaczorowski, Army chaplain and Bishop Tadeusz Plozki, Orthodox Archbishop Miron Chodakowski and Evangelical military pastor Adam Pilsch by name.

He entrusted all of the victims of the crash "to the goodness of merciful God" and prayed, "May He take them into his glory."

To the families of the dead and to all Poles he sent his "sincere condolences" and assured his them of spiritual closeness.

"In this difficult moment," he closed, "I implore for all the people of Poland a special blessing of God omnipotent."

Catholic-Jewish Dialogue Day Visit

Second Papal Visit to the Great Synagogue of Rome:

(ANSA) - Vatican City, January 4 - The Rome Jewish Community on Monday confirmed that a visit to the capital's synagogue by Pope Benedict XVI will go ahead as planned, easing fears of a rift following polemics last month over Pius XII.

The Vatican's decision to advance the wartime pope closer to sainthood angered the Jewish community and had sparked fears that Benedict's January visit to the Rome Synagogue would be cancelled. Pius XII, criticized by many for failing to openly condemn the Holocaust, was recognized as 'venerable' in mid-December, the second of four stages in the canonization process. But a statement by the Jewish Community of Rome, published by the Vatican press office, confirmed that Benedict's visit to the Synagogue would take place as scheduled. ''Pope Benedict XVI will visit the Great Synagogue of Rome on the afternoon of January 17,'' the statement said. ''The meeting will take place on Catholic-Jewish Dialogue Day, which this year coincides with the Roman Jewish holiday of 'Moed di Piombo'''.

Moed di Piombo is a festival celebrating miraculous rains that saved Rome's Jewish ghetto from burning to the ground after a pogrom in 1793.

Catholic-Jewish Dialogue Day, a worldwide event, was established by John Paul II in 1990, four years after he became the first pope ever to enter a synagogue with his landmark visit to the temple in Rome. Benedict will now become the second pope in history to visit the Rome Synagogue. The Jewish community revealed he had accepted their invitation last March and the pontiff announced his official acceptance at the beginning of the Jewish New Year in September.

Benedict has worked hard to ease tensions between Jews and Catholics since his election in 2005, widely condemning Holocaust denial and reiterating his commitment to Catholic-Jewish relations.

One of his first acts as pope was to send a message to Rome's Jewish community vowing to continue John Paul II's legacy of dialogue and respect.

The summer after his election, Benedict made his first visit to a synagogue in the German city of Cologne, followed by an April 2008 visit to New York's historic Park East Synagogue.

In May 2009, he prayed at Israel's Yad Vashem monument commemorating the Holocaust.

However, he did not enter the adjacent museum where a caption accuses Pius XII of not doing enough to save the Jews, and Jewish-Catholic tensions have flared up more than once since Benedict took office.

In 2008, the Italian Jewish community boycotted Jewish-Catholic Dialogue Day ceremonies after Benedict reinstated an Easter prayer calling on Jews to convert.

Relations with Jews and Israel came under further strain in 2009, when the Pope lifted the excommunication of bishop Richard Williamson, a member of an ultra-traditionalist Catholic society and a vocal Holocaust denier.

The Vatican's decision to elevate Pius XII along with the popular John Paul II in mid-December prompted several days of angry debate.

In a bid to repair the damage, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi issued a detailed statement explaining why Pius XII had been recognized as 'venerable'. He said there was no reason to expect Pius and John Paul would proceed to beatification - the next step towards canonization - at the same time. He said there was no certainty over when or even whether Pius would be beatified. Lombardi insisted the move had not been intended as a hostile act towards Jews. He also explained the elevation reflected Pius XII's ''relationship with God and his faith'' and was not an assessment of the pontiff's ''operational choices''. Rabbi Giuseppe Laras, president of the Italian Rabbinical Association, immediately welcomed the Vatican's response, citing its ''conciliatory tone'' and ''explanation that the move was not intended as an inflammatory one''. He said canceling the visit would have ''negative consequences'' but the Jewish Community has only now given official confirmation of the visit.

Detractors claim Pius XII did not do enough to save Jews, but his supporters say he did not speak out loudly so he could help Jews behind the scenes. Jewish groups say the only way to settle the issue of Pius's wartime role is to open the Vatican's archives on the war years.

The Vatican has been cataloguing the secret files for several years but says the sheer number of documents means it will be unable to open its archive before 2015 at earliest

Read more about the Great Synagogue of Rome here and here.