U.S. At War: Booby Trap?

The debate over shrines v. military objectives went on.

Pope Pius XII, speaking from the balcony of St. Peter’s, appealed to “the clear sightedness and wisdom of responsible men on both sides [to spare] Rome, this noble city which belongs to all times and all places.” Destruction of Rome, he said, would be an “act as inglorious militarily as it is abominable in the eyes of God and humanity.”

Florida’s strongly pro-Ally Catholic Bishop, Joseph P. Hurley, put the issue to the U.S. in terms of America’s moral standing before the world. He said:

“At Rome, our Nazi enemies have set the most dangerous booby trap of history.

. . . If we spring this trap, so cunningly prepared by the arch-criminals of our times, we shall destroy not only the city of the Popes and capital of Christendom . . . but destroy our own prestige and thereby make a decent peace almost impossible. Countless millions of people in Europe and in South America would turn resolutely from the nation which . . . dared to raze the beloved shrines of the Christian centuries.

“The Nazis want us to destroy Rome because they want to destroy our influence for good. . . .”