It was the week of his 82nd birthday, but Pope Pius XII was in no mood to celebrate. For days he fumed and brooded in his chambers. Then Osservatore Romano curtly announced that because of "the bitterness, sorrow and outrage in Italy," His Holiness had canceled the festivities that were to mark the 19th anniversary of his coronation. Finally, the Vatican lashed out at the culprits who had aroused its fury: it excommunicated the three Florentine judges who had convicted the Bishop of Prato of criminal defamation for having called the civil marriage of a local couple "scandalous concubinage"...
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