Among Papa Pacelli’s papers his dry account of what seen on the eve of the proclamation of the Assumption’s dogma, in 1950: the solar globe swirled as it happened during the last Portuguese appearance
Until a few years ago this was a familiar story, lacking however any documentation backup. In 1950, just before proclaiming the Marian dogma of the Assumption of Mary’s body in heaven upon her death, the last of the dogmas proclaimed by the Catholic Church, Pius XII saw an extraordinary fact. As he walked through the Vatican Gardens, he saw several times the same phenomenon that occurred on October 13, 1917 at the end of Fatima’s apparitions, when the crowd gathered next to the three shepherds on a rainy day and suddenly saw the sun rotating and approaching: the present stared at this strange “dance” without going blind.
The first, and only, who had spoken of the “miracle” seen by Pius XII was Cardinal Federico Tedeschini during a homily. Nine years ago, from the Pacelli family’s archive emerged a signed note of the Pope. An unpublished text on that vision, a pencil handwritten note on the back of a sheet in which Pius XII personally tells what had happened to him. The account is dry, almost like a legal note, without ever giving into sensationalism. Pope Pacelli wrote it on a sheet of paper he had already used. On the back of it, in fact it had some typed lines concerning a hearing: a further confirmation of the parsimonious nature of the Roman Pope, who used to turn off the lights himself in the Vatican halls after the hearings and often re-used the envelopes with which the daily program of hearings were delivered to him.
“It was October 30, 1950,” 2-days before the solemn definition of the Assumption, Pius XII says. The Pope was about to proclaim dogma of faith what the Church had always believed since the early centuries: the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary at the end of her earthly life. He did so after consulting the world episcopate, which unanimously agreed: only six responses out of 1.181 had expressed some reservations. Towards four o’clock that afternoon, he went on his “usual walk in the Vatican gardens, reading and studying.” Pacelli remembers that, as he rose from the piazza of Our Lady of Lourdes “toward the top of the hill, on the tree-lined road next to the brick wall”; he lifted his eyes from the leaves. “I was struck by a phenomenon, which I never saw until then. The sun, which was still high enough, looked like a yellow opaque globe surrounded all around by a bright circle, “that I could stare at,” without receiving the slightest trouble. With a light cloud in front.” “The opaque globe - Pius XII continues in the note - moved slightly towards the external side, both turning and moving from left to right and vice versa. But inside the globe, there were clear and uninterrupted movements.”
Pius XII’s note on the “miracle of the sun”
The Pope then attests to having witnessed the same phenomenon the following day, October 31, and on November 1, on the day the dogma of the Assumption was defined; and again on November 8. Then no more. He remembers also having tried “several times” on other days, at the same time and with similar weather conditions, “to look at the sun to see if the same phenomenon appeared, but in vain; I could not stare, not even for a moment, the sight being immediately dazzled”.
It is to be noted that the Pope never speaks of “miracle”, nor does he cast into possible interpretations. He was, however certainly impressed by the coincidence. In the following days, Pius XII reported the fact that he had witnessed to “a few intimate and a small group of Cardinals (maybe four or five), among whom was Cardinal Tedeschini.” The latter, in October of the following year, 1951, had to go to Fatima to close the celebrations of the Holy Year. Before leaving, he was received at a hearing and had asked the pope permission to cite in his homily that singular vision of the rotating sun. “I replied,” Leave it, it is not the case. “But he insisted - Pio XII continued in the manuscript - supporting the opportunity offered by this announcement, so then I went on explaining some details of the event.” “This is, in short and simple terms - Pope Pacelli concluded - the pure truth.” Pascalina Lehnert, the religious housekeeper of the papal apartment, testified at the time, “Pius XII was persuaded of the reality of the extraordinary phenomenon that he had witnessed four times.”
The so-called “miracle of the sun” had already occurred on October 13, 1917 in Fatima, during the last appearance to the three shepherds. Thus reported M. Alvarez of Almeida, a laic and non-believer journalist, sent by the newspaper “O Seculo” as well as an eyewitness: “It was then witnessed a unique and at the same time incredible spectacle for those who have not witnessed it ... the immense crowd turn to the cloudless sunshine in the daylight. The sun reminds faded silver disc that can be looked at without suffering the least discomfort. It does not burn, it does not blind, one would say an eclipse.”
Pius XII was very attached to Fatima: the first appearance to the three shepherds happened on May 13 1917, the same day that Pacelli was consecrated Archbishop in the Sistine Chapel. Pius XII and the visionary Sister Lucia Dos Santos are still in contact, and the Pontiff, in the last year of his life, will keep the text of Fatima’s third secret in his apartment. To maintain direct contacts between Lucia and the Pope was marquise Olga Morosini Cavadal, the woman who in 1977 accompanied the patriarch of Venice, Albino Luciani to the visionary of Fatima in the monastery of Coimbra. “Several times,” the marquise said at the process of beatification of Pacelli – I would transmit messages coming from the Holy Father for Sister Lucia and back, but since I promised never to reveal anything to anyone, I do not feel entitled to do it now. “
