Giuseppe Ramiro Marcone, OSB (1882, San Pietro Infine, Italy – 1952, Montevergine) was an Italian Benedictine abbot. He was ordained in 1906 and appointed Abbot of Montevergine in 1918.[1] He served an apostolic visitor to Croatia during World War II, in which capacity he worked on behalf of the Holy See for the protection of Croatian Jews.[citation needed]
In 1941, Pope Pius XII dispatched Marcone as apostolic visitor to Nazi-aligned Croatia, in order to assist Archbishop Aloysius Stepinac and the Croatian Episcopate in "combating the evil influence of neo-pagan propaganda which could be exercised in the organization of the new state".[2] Marcone served as nuncio in all but name.[3] He reported to Rome on the deteriorating conditions for Croatian Jews, made representations on behalf of the Jews to Croatian officials, and transported Jewish children to safety in neutral Turkey. [2] However, he made no efforts on behalf of Serb victims of the Ustaše.
When deportation of Croatian Jews began, Stepinac and Marcone protested to Andrija Artuković.[3] In his study of rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust, Martin Gilbert wrote, "In the Croatian capital of Zagreb, as a result of intervention by [Marcone] on behalf of Jewish partners in mixed marriages, a thousand Croat Jews survived the war.[4]
Marcone died in 1952.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Abbot Giuseppe Ramiro Marcone, O.S.B." Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
- ^ a b "The papers of Apostolic Visitor, Giuseppe Ramiro Marcone reveal the Holy See's commitment to helping Jews persecuted by Nazis". News.va. Archived from the original on 21 October 2015. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
- ^ a b Phayer, Michael. 2000. The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press; pp. 32, 85; ISBN 978-0-253-21471-3
- ^ Gilbert, Martin. The Righteous - The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust, Doubleday; 2002; ISBN 0385 60100X; pg. 203.
External links
edit- Holy See's apostolic visitor intervened on behalf of Croatian Jews in WWII; CatholicCulture.Org; 10 August 2011.