SISTER MARGHERITA MARCHIONE, Ph.D.

Author of over 150 articles and 50 books.

Books include:

Americans of Italian Heritage
Yours Is a Precious Witness: Memoirs of Jews and Catholics in Wartime Italy
Twentieth Century Italian Poetry
Philip Mazzei, World Citizen
Consensus & Controversy

Honors include:

Fulbright Scholar
Columbia University Garibaldi Scholar
Star of Solidality of the Republic of Italy
Induction into the New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame.
Papal award, Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Cross.

A leading scholar on the life of Pope Pius XII, this Italian-American nun born on February 19, 1922, has led the fight to defend Pius against charges that he did little on behalf of Jews during World War II.

Margherita Marchione, a sister with the Religious Teachers Filippini since September 2, 1935, breaks every mold her heritage, calling and age might suggest. Her Italian parents, immigrants to America, were dismayed when their cherished youngest daughter at age 13 announced she was leaving home for the convent.

As a sister in a conservative order, she nevertheless attended the secular Columbia University in New York City, earning a Ph.D. Now she travels the world, promoting causes that have earned her the name, the Fighting Nun.

In a habit she's worn since 1938, only slightly modified, Sister Margherita balances her devotion to God and her passion for scholarship. As a dedicated member of her order, she still serves as the treasurer at the Villa Walsh motherhouse in Morristown, New Jersey, where we visited her. But she also is active in the secular world, serving on the New Jersey Historical Commission.

This tiny nun, a little more than five feet tall, has been described as charming, courageous and compassionate. The woman we met deserves the epithet "feisty." Indeed, her latest "mission," as she describes it, tends to incite feistiness. She is a passionate champion of the canonization of Pope Pius XII.

But Pius, once internationally acclaimed as "saintly," is now widely vilified. So, Sister Margherita has gone on the offensive. She has several titles in print on the subject of Pope Pius, including a biography, Pope Pius XII: Architect for Peace. Two books tackle head-on the history of the Holocaust in Italy and the Pope's role. Consensus and Controversy: Defending Pope Pius XII, and Yours Is a Precious Witness: Memoirs of Jews and Catholics in Wartime Italy make a strong case for the active role the Vatican and Italians took to save many Jews. Her latest book is Shepherd of Souls: A Pictorial Life of Pope Pius XII.

Even in her autobiography, The Fighting Nun: My Story, she devotes more than two chapters to setting the record straight. The British historian John Cornwell in his book, Hitler's Pope: the Secret History of Pius XII, claims the Pope's silence during the Holocaust condemned thousands of Jews to death by the Nazis. He further argues that Pius cut deals with Hitler in order to save German Catholics from persecution by the Nazis. Ultimately, Cornwell condemns Pope Pius as an anti-Semite who was a willing agent to Hitler's master plan.

"Absolutely untrue!" bellows the tiny nun. (She has argued with Cornwell on several occasions on radio and television.) Was Pope Pius silent? No, actually he spoke out officially on several occasions against Hitler and the actions of Nazi Germany. Moreover, those official statements had violent repercussions in Germany and Poland: in Dachau alone, 2,800 priests were imprisoned. More than half died there. What Pope Pius determined was that the Church, and Rome, could do more good by acting quietly besides speaking officially against Hitler. To that end, convents, monasteries, even the Vatican itself, on the Pope's orders, were opened as havens for Jews. One amazing photograph in Sister Margherita's collection shows a dozen young Jewish mothers holding their infants in what is captioned "The Nursery." The tapestry visible in the background has the Pope's coat-of-arms: the Pope gave up his private quarters to house these women and their babies.

As a member of the Religious Teachers Filippini, Sister Margherita has access to the sisters of her order in Italy who participated in the sheltering of Jews. They share stories of setting up their cots throughout the convents, including the basements, so Jewish families could have the small bedrooms.

After the "fighting nun," takes apart her opponent's arguments, she asks the compelling question, "Why?"
"Controversy sells, and they are making money," Sister Margherita says of Cornwell and others.

But why are Time magazine, the Washington Post and most especially, the New York Times so eager to promote and praise what has been proven to be inaccurate writing?

"By discrediting Pope Pius XII, the Church is discredited," Sister Margherita suggests. "He was widely admired and is now no longer widely known. If his voice of moral authority, thus the Church's moral presence, can be taken out of the social ratio, the media's voice is empowered." Fighting words from the fighting nun. She has a spirit and a voice that are hard to ignore.

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Click here for a listing of Sr. Marchione's books.

Articles by Sr. Margherita.
Recent articles
Archived articles
Awards and honors bestowed on Sr. Margherita.