St. John of Rochester Parish will host a reading of The Disciple Aug. 14 at 2 p.m. at the church, located at 8 Wickford Way in Fairport.
Written by local Catholic Ron Buttarazzi, The Disciple depicts Pope Pius XII’s efforts to save the Jewish people from Adolf Hitler and the Nazis during World War II. Hitler sought to destroy western civilization, annihilate the Jewish people and supersede the church’s teachings of the inherent dignity of each person, and Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who became Pope Pius XII in March 1939, tried to thwart these efforts, Buttarazzi said.
“The play unveils the titanic struggle between Hitler and Eugenio Pacelli identified as Pope Pius XII in its stark dimensions between good and evil, freedom and tyranny and life and death. The play is in three dimensions — the spiritual, the philosophical and the human,” Buttarazzi said.
