Nazi War Criminal Erich Priebke Dies; Church, Italian and Argentine Governments, Refuse Funerals For Him

Convicted Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke died Friday at age 100 while serving a life sentence under house arrest in Rome at the home of his lawyer. As reported by AP, Priebke (after living nearly 50 years in Argentina) was extradited in 1995 to stand trial in Italy for the 1944 massacre at the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome in which 335 civilians were killed.  Pope Francis' vicar for Rome, Cardinal Agostino Vallini, has prohibited any church in Rome from celebrating a funeral mass for Priebke. The Rome archdiocese says his funeral must be held at home in strict privacy. Rome's police and civil officials said they would also bar any public ceremony out of security concerns. Meanwhile, Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said that Priebke's body would not be allowed into Argentina either. However Priebke' lawyer Paolo Giachini argued that as a practicing Catholic, Priebke deserves a Catholic funeral as a matter of his religious liberty. He suggested that Priebke might be buried in Germany, and a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said that German citizens had that right, though no request has been made by any of Priebke's family members.