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Some claims to national interest, and provoking conflict. everybody knows who that is. >> the vatican never takes sides in the sense of calling out leaders or countries by name, but there's no doubt about which side he is on. >> reporter: francis does not shy away from world affairs. in 2014, he helped broker a thaw in u.s./cuba relations. >> i want to thank his holiness, pope francis who shows us the world as it should be, rather than simply settling for the world as it is. >> reporter: he's not the first pope the play a role on the global stage. john paul ii prayed to bring down communism. p...

>> as the war rages outside the vatican walls, pius xii becomes a target. rumors fly about a nazi plan to kidnap the pope. >> hitler actually got a general and told him to draw plans to invade the vatican. he gathered everyone together and released them if they wanted to leave, but he also submitted a letter that was his resignation that said, if i am captured, i resign the papacy. so, they will not capture the pope, they will capture eugenio pacelli, but not the pope. >> as bombs go off and jews are rounded up right under the pope's windows, pius xii must take stock. his diplomatic efforts ha...

Wilheln whom pacelli met when he was in germany in the 1920s. he reached out to his friend and said, help me and help germany get rid of hitler. canares then had access to explosives. >> between 1940 and 1944, there would be three failed attempts to assassinate adolf hitler. information about these plots are still shrouded in conspiracy theory, undocumented proof of pope pius xii's role is almost nonexistent. >> the pope knew he had to keep quiet about it. if he kept written records, he could get people killed. >> the pope is not involved in any of the details. he helps to facilitate the conta...

Deportation to extermination camps. they are held at the military college of rome, mere blocks from st. peter's basilica. but despite the a trotrocities unfolding right at his doorstep, pope pius xii remains publicly silent. >> he takes the path of diplomatic caution in terms of his public pronouncements, but it's not that the pope was inactive. there is a view that the pope worked behind the scenes to try to put an end to the round up. there is some evidence, in fact, that actually worked. >> they got several jews released primarily because they were married to a catholic or they invoked the ...

Ground. >> there were some vatican trucks that would go around and take food and blankets and bring additional supplies to where it was needed. >> some believe that pope pius xii silence is a cover. that throughout the war, he is secretly involved with covert operations with the allies. >> the pope did secretly tape his conversations. during the week of his election in 1939, the vatican tapes show quite clearly that he opted for public acquiescence with the nazis, and at the same time deciding they must be resisted behind the scenes. >> pius xii received information from the vatican spy in ger...