Or whatever.

Found this via The Hermeneutic of Continuity, Fr. Tim Finigan’s great blog. Fr. Tim found it on a new UK Catholic blog called Obnoxiously Pious.

What this seems to be is the last part of a documentary film on Pius XII, which, in turn, seems to be part of a serious of Italian documentaries on the Popes of the 20th century. You might end up getting very angry at YouTube member Darsham, because he has uploaded, it seems, all of them, and the archival footage is fascinating, and you might not be able to stop watching.

This on,  the "Last Years of Pius XII," begins with the canonization of Maria Goretti, and even though we all know her mother and her murderer were both present at the canonization, it is startling to see them on film. There is some weird footage of Pius doing some television – well, actually it’s rather Fulton Sheenish in its effect, so perhaps it’s just the time, and the fact that I’ve never seen Pius XII actually moving around and speaking on film before. There’s footage of his last days, even on his deathbed, the funeral and the casket, being lowered, rather awkwardly on a crane, into the vault.

And here’s another brief clip of interest  – about 2 minutes, uploaded by another user, of Pius XI.