10-19 LEAD STORY MURR Interview-Corr1b_Culture 10/1/20 4:22 PM Page 10
LEAD STORY
FROM PIUS XII TO VATICAN II THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF A KEY CHURCH EPOCH FR. CHARLES THEODORE MURR, IN THIS INTERVIEW
MOTHER PASCALINA LEHNERT, CONCERNING HIS BOOK
ON
UNVEILS THE MYSTERIES
OF THE PEOPLE AND EVENTS IN THE
CHURCH IN THE MID-1900S n BY KEVIN SYMONDS
I
n this interview, Inside the Vatican talks with Fr. Charles Theodore Murr, author of The Godmother: Mother Pascalina: A Feminine Tour de Force (2017). Fr. Murr is a former secretary to Edouard Cardinal Gagnon and worked at the Vatican in the 1970s. During this time, Murr befriended Mother Pascalina Lehnert, the housekeeper of Pope Pius XII for 41 years, from his time as Papal Nuncio in Germany to his death as Pope in 1958. The Godmother recounts many of their encounters in the 1970s, with topics ranging from serious Church news and issues to a lighthearted and humorous attending of a stage performance of The Pirates of Penzance. Fr. Murr sits with Inside the Vatican and gives us a look into his life, the life of Mother Pascalina, and a bird’s-eye view of events that happened inside the Vatican. 10
INSIDE THE VATICAN OCTOBER 2020
The Godmother: Mother Pascalina, A Feminine Tour de Force by Fr. Charles Theodore Murr, is available through Amazon. It was also recently translated into Italian and Spanish. Those editions are also available on Amazon
Fr. Murr, thank you for sitting with Inside the Vatican for this interview about your book The Godmother: Mother Pascalina: A Feminine Tour de Force. Before going into the book, would you mind telling us a little about yourself? FR. CHARLES THEODORE MURR: Saint Paul, Minnesota is my birthplace. I was born in 1950, the eldest of seven children. I attended grammar schools and high school in Minnesota and college in Wisconsin, majoring in Romance languages. When did you enter the seminary and who would you say was your biggest influence in getting you to consider the priesthood? MURR: The rector of the Pontifical Mexican College in Rome admitted me
