{"id":872,"date":"2015-12-08T06:41:09","date_gmt":"2015-12-08T11:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=872"},"modified":"2016-02-10T11:02:19","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T16:02:19","slug":"police-psychology-law-enforcement-spirituality-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=872","title":{"rendered":"Police Psychology | Law Enforcement Spirituality Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>Anne Bisek approached me with a spirituality article and we thought together what if we did a series on Spirituality.\u00a0 After all, as police psychologists and officers we deal with spiritual questions all the time.\u00a0 This is the first in a four or five part series on Spirituality with the other articles following in the next two weeks.\u00a0 Anne and I worked together to edit them and get people to write them.\u00a0 We hope you like it.\u00a0 If you do, let us know.\u00a0 \u2014 Gary and Anne<\/em><\/span>\n

What Does It Mean to Be a Catholic and a Police Officer, and Possibly a \u201cSaint\u201d?<\/h2>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Witness the unknown story of one such individual who risked his life amidst grave danger to save over five thousand perfect strangers. The following narrative is an inspiring story about keeping faith in the midst of tribulation, even to the point of sacrificing his own life to martyrdom.<\/span><\/p>\n
GIOVANNI PALATUCCI, POLICEMAN AND MAN OF GOD<\/h4>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Between 1938 and 1944, Giovanni Palatucci, who was in charge of the Italian Government\u2019s Foreigners Office, and later Chief of Police in $\"Palatucci\"$ <\/a>Fiume, northern Italy, saved the lives of 5,000 Jews, destined to extermination camps. Palatucci obtained false documents and safe-conducts for individuals persecuted by Nazism. He carried out this endeavor with the help of his uncle, Bishop Giuseppe Maria Palatucci of Campagna.<\/span><\/p>\n
Palatucci was born in Montella, Italy, in 1909. He worked in Genoa\u2019s public security administration until 1937, when he moved to Fiume. Following the promulgation of racist laws in Italy, he began forging documents and visas for thousands of Jews, sending them to internment camps, \u201cprotected\u201d with the added help of his uncle, the Bishop. At that time Palatucci was engaged to a young Jewish woman, and saw her safely in Switzerland before returning to his work.<\/span><\/p>\n
In 1938 Italian dictator Benito Mussolini had promulgated anti-Jewish laws, which included the confinement of foreign Jews sheltered in camps for internees. One of the largest of these camps was located in Campagna. \u201cThey want to make us believe that the heart is only a muscle, to hinder us from doing what our hearts and religion tell us,\u201d Palatucci said, referring to these laws. Palatucci\u2019s work consisted in editing the necessary residence papers required by the law for refugees. He began silently to falsify documents and visas. When Palatucci \u201cdeported\u201d Jews \u201cofficially\u201d, he handled it in such a way that they were sent to Campagna, instructing his refugees to contact his uncle, who would give them the most help possible.<\/span><\/p>\n
After Mussolini\u2019s imprisonment in 1943, the German forces occupied the north of Italy, making the situation in Fiume increasingly dangerous for Palatucci, and for the 3,500 Jews there. In February 1943, Palatucci became Fiume\u2019s Chief of Police, and was thus able to continue his secret work. Instead of giving the Germans information on \u201cforeigners\u201d to be deported, he destroyed the records. When he learned about the Nazis\u2019 plans, he alerted people in time, often providing them with false documents and money to escape.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
In June 1943, high German officials searched Palatucci\u2019s apartment, looking for information on resident Jews, the only lists they found corresponded to people who had left Italy long ago. From then on, Palatucci\u2019s relationship with his superiors became very dangerous. A close friend, the Swiss ambassador in Trieste, offered Palatucci safe passage to Switzerland. He accepted his friend\u2019s generous offer but, instead of using it himself, he sent his fianc\u00e9e, a young Jewish woman. She spent the war there and today lives in Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n
On September 13, 1944, he was arrested by German security police, the Gestapo, accused of conspiracy, and condemned to death in the prison at Trieste. His sentence was later \u201ccommuted\u201d to deportation to Dachau on October 22^{nd.<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0 He was taken to the Dachau extermination camp, his prison number was 117826.<\/span><\/p>\n}
\u201cHe died on February 10, 1945, in the very place from which he had saved so many,<\/span><\/p>\n
a few weeks before the camp was liberated by the Allies on April 29, 1945. Some say he died of undernourishment. Other witnesses said he was shot. He was only 36.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Giovanni Palatucci\u2019s cause of beatification is already under way. Fr. Gianfranco Zuncheddu, postulator of Palatucci\u2019s Cause of Beatification, said that since \u201cJune 17 of last year, the beginning of the diocesan investigation for the beatification and canonization of the Servant of God as a martyr for the faith. Now we await the response and judgment of the consultant theologians on his writings.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Being a good Catholic police officer shouldn\u2019t be about a doctrine but about actions and the \u201cheart\u201d behind those actions. We too often hinder when our hearts tell us to do something that is right. A good Catholic police officer should not hinder his heart or his religion to follow the letter of the law. The heart of the police officer should be to help others in their time of need like Giovanni Palatucci. That is how we become human and that is how we become a Saint.<\/span><\/p>\n
Fr. Joseph D\u2019Angelo<\/span><\/h4>\n
Catholic Priest<\/span><\/h4>\n
Police Chaplain<\/span><\/h4>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Blog Administrator: Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
Please share this article from down below.<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
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Come back regularly for more updated blogs on police psychology<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anne Bisek approached me with a spirituality article and we thought together what if we did a series on Spirituality.\u00a0 After all, as police psychologists and officers we deal with spiritual questions all the time.\u00a0 This is the first in a four or five part series on Spirituality with the other articles following in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17168889],"tags":[17168858,17168797,17168859],"class_list":["post-872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other","tag-palatucci","tag-police-psychology","tag-sainthood"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":908,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=908","url_meta":{"origin":872,"position":0},"title":"Police Psychology | Law Enforcement Spirituality Part III","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"December 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0Anne Bisek sent me this article and said she wasn't sure if I could use it or not.\u00a0 I have lectured around the world in police psychology and always added spirituality as part of the psychology needed to be healthy as police officers.\u00a0 I decided we needed more than one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other Tools"","block_context":{"text":"Other Tools","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168889"},"img":{"alt_text":"bible, Police Psychology","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/bible-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":877,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=877","url_meta":{"origin":872,"position":1},"title":"Police Psychology | Law Enforcement Spirituality Part 2","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"December 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In New York, as I am sure in many major cities, it is common to find many members of the departments who are Jewish.\u00a0 But isn't their faith antithetical to police work?\u00a0 My conservative Jewish Intern will explain.\u00a0 As we are traveling through the Hanukkah season we must not forget\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other Tools"","block_context":{"text":"Other Tools","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168889"},"img":{"alt_text":"Star of David, Police Psychology","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Star_of_David-260x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":995,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=995","url_meta":{"origin":872,"position":2},"title":"Police Psychology | A Toe for Mickey","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"January 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | A Toe for Mickey \u00a0 Mike went down to the floor a couple of times. Doubled over, holding his stomach, wrenching, trying to catch a breath between the strokes of thesword that was ripping out his insides. Mike had a serious anxiety disorder compounded with a quadruple\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mastering Resilience"","block_context":{"text":"Mastering Resilience","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168882"},"img":{"alt_text":"anxiety, Police Psychology","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/anxiety-275x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6811,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=6811","url_meta":{"origin":872,"position":3},"title":"Police Psychology: Catholic, Police Officer, and Possibly a \u201cSaint\u201d?","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"December 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | Catholic, Police Officer, and Possibly a \u201cSaint\u201d? Fr. Joseph D\u2019Angelo, Catholic Priest, Police Chaplain Witness the unknown story of one such individual who risked his life amidst grave danger to save over five thousand perfect strangers. The following narrative is an inspiring story about keeping faith in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Stories","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Palatucci","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Palatucci.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":810,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=810","url_meta":{"origin":872,"position":4},"title":"Hogwarts and Police Psychology","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"October 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Hogwarts and Police Psychology by Drs. Gary Aumiller and Scott Stubenrauch (Guest Blogger) What if we told you that Hogwarts was real and police psychology is used frequently with the new students? What if there really was a Sorting Hat that could define your personality and place you into a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Public Information Bureau"","block_context":{"text":"Public Information Bureau","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168888"},"img":{"alt_text":"POLICE PSYCHOLOGY, testing","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/testing-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":417,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=417","url_meta":{"origin":872,"position":5},"title":"Police Psychology | When a Child Dies","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"June 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology:\u00a0 When A Child Dies \u00a0 Anne Bisek, Psy.D. is our first guest blogger. She is a police psychologist in Freemont California. Her specialty is calls for service involving the death of a child. For more information on this topic visit www.whenachiddies.com. It was obvious to the crowd of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Stories","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bisek 1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Bisek-1-300x142.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p60sbO-e4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":904,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions\/904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}