A Penny for the Old Guy; A Bomb for the Pope

 

   It's interesting how ready we are to assign blame when something goes wrong, even when it's our own fault. Take the time a bomb was dropped on the Vatican during WWII. The Vatican was neutral, but during a bombing raid on Rome by British and American planes a bomb was dropped onto a building in the Vatican. No one was hurt. 

   Because the date was November 5, a cardinal came up with the theory that the British (or sympathetic Americans) had purposely targeted the Vatican because November 5 is an anti-pope day in England. There was some truth to the cardinal's theory, because the Fifth of November used to be an anti-pope day in England back in the old days.

   It all began in 1605 with the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament and kill King James I who was making life difficult for English Catholics. The plotters hoped that with the king dead, there would be uprisings in the country and a Catholic could be placed on the throne. 

   But the authorities were tipped off and Guy Fawkes, one of the conspirators, was caught guarding the gunpowder in the cellar of the Parliament building. Fawkes along with seven other conspirators was drawn, quartered, and hanged, the punishment for treason. On November 5 every year thereafter effigies of Fawkes and the pope would be burned at bonfires. During the day, children would push the straw effigies around town asking for "a penny for the old Guy.”

   The tradition continued into the 20th century but by then had lost its anti-Catholic focus, but not for the good cardinal in Rome. After much investigation it was discovered that an Italian plane had dropped the bomb under cover of the Allied bombing. The intent was to knock out the Vatican radio station which the Italian government suspected was sending information to the Allies. This was not all sorted out until 2016.

   In March of the next year a British pilot accidentally dropped bombs close to a Vatican wall. There was some minor damage to buildings inside the Vatican. A workman was killed and a monk was injured. The British apologized.

Inside the Vatican, the day after.