Wesley Viola Religion 1/11/10 Reflection Essay

Assisi Underground Reflection EssayOf all the Holocaust movies I have seen, this one was much different from the rest in that it showed Catholic actions in the war. Up until seeing Assisi Underground, I had no idea of the part, if any, played by Catholics. I understand from class discussion that the Church remained officially neutral, which I find to be really sad. I cannot understand at all how an institution devoted to the work of Christ, that is, of benevolence and compassion, could possibly choose to not get involved in such open acts of evil. I feel like if the Church publicly declared opposition against the Nazis and their goals, more people would have been united against Hitler. While the institution did not prove to be very brave, members of Jehovahs Witness and people like Padre Rufino made up for it at least in part. I think these people say a lot about the actual people of the Church. They demonstrated how incredibly good some of these people are, risking their lives in supporting others even though they were under no obligation while their Church is neutral. Because of this, I especially admire the Catholics that did actually oppose the Nazis.

The efforts of people like Padre Rufino produced dramatic results in Italy, helping to save 80 percent of the Jews from death. I really loved Padre Rufino. He was extremely brave and willing when asked by the bishop to help hide refugees, which seems fairly daunting to me. I really look up to this courage, and was very impressed with how loyal he remained despite the threat of being shot. The aspect I admire most about Padre Rufino though was his consistently warm character, even in times of distress, and I am certain that this helped keep the refugees sane and calm. I loved watching him and the refugees sing the Jewish celebration songs and was amazed that they could all be so joyful in such times. I really hope that I someday meet a man as spirited and courageous as Padre Rufino. The only aspect of the movie that I found to be confusing was the character Colonel Valentin Mller. As I understand it, Padre Rufino persuaded him that he was sent by God with the mission of protecting the Christian holy places and monasteries. Having been influenced by Rufino, the Colonel asked a higher officer to declare Assisi an open city. I thought this was all really great, but I was confused by the relationship between Padre Rufino and Colonel Valentin Mller at the end of the movie. It seems

to me the Padre Rufino deceived the Colonel into doing many things that would hurt the Nazis. Although I remember that by the end of the movie the Colonel acknowledges that the war is being lost by the Nazis and that it is not really worth it to continue fighting, I cannot tell I he still, or ever, felt betrayed by Padre Rufino. I was really shocked at one point in the movie when the nuns refused to break their private prayer to let the refugees hide. When the Nazi officers were about to search the convent and Padre Rufino was asking the Abbess to help hide them, I was saying in my mind hurry up, hurry up. When the Abbess refused however, I was just astounded. She claimed that there was a very long standing tradition in convent that she would have to break to help hide the refugees. Only the popes orders, she said, could allow her to break this tradition. This and things like it really bother me. How can someone that stands for Christ possibly endanger a group of people because there is a tradition to follow? What else is there in a nuns life except to serve God? To serve God is to serve others, not to follow tradition. It reminds me of the parable in which Jesus heals on the Sabbath. Jesus technically violates Jewish law by healing, a form of work, on Sunday. The lesson of the story, and of many of Jesus stories, was to put more focus on

the spirit, not the letter of the law. It seems to me that what the Abbess did that day was not at all in keeping with one of Jesus most important messages. I am very curious as to whether or not the Abbess ever regretted these actions of hers.