AGED ARCHBISHOP

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19199, 16 December 1936, Page 15

AGED ARCHBISHOP

NAZIS RAID MANSION NOTHING FOUND , MUNICH, Oct. lb. It was officially admitted here t'o-day that Nazi secret police raided the palatial home of the Catholic Nilncio, Monsignor Vassalo 'di Torregrossa, last week-end. ' As a former Apostolic Nuncio (diplomatic representative of the Pope) and Archbishop of Emesa, Monsignor di Torregrossa is the second-highest dignitary of the Catholic Church in Bavaria. Three plain-clothes men pounded on the ponderous oak door of the house in Munich's Kaulbachstrasse in the early morning. " ’ ‘ It 'is an impressiye Tiouse —the seat ot the British Ministry, after the war. The Nuncio’s grey-haired housekeeper was astounded-when the shabby men flashed their police 'badges. As they began to ransack the house she hastened to rouse the 'Nuncio.' * A portly figure, with a- great mane of silver hair, .the. .SO-yegr-pld .archbishop made a dignified. impression even in deshabille.He looked on incredulously as his visitors swept scientifically through his files, desk and safe. He inquired mildly what they were after. , 1 “Looking for’ evidence of foreign smuggling,” was the laconic answer. The secret police raiders gave up their search several-hours later, empty but-they'took the grey-haired housekeeper' away'with-them.-. They claimed’ she had thrown documents .into the fire |h ’ an"" upstairs' room •'befbre' ‘they - could reach‘her. >■ • She has. since bfccn released. The raid on the home of an archbishop . is • unprecedented. • Both local Nazis and’local-’Catholics 1 - it as the signal ’ for another rtnti-Catholic drive in.G,erniany.. . * ...