{{Short description|American Jesuit priest and historian}} {{More footnotes needed|date=October 2009}} '''Robert Andrew Graham''', SJ (March 11, 1912 – February 11, 1997) was an American Jesuit priest and World War II historian of the Catholic Church. He was a vigorous defender of Pope Pius XII against accusations that he had failed to do what he could to defend the Jews and others persecuted by the Nazis. thumb|Robert A. Graham (right) at wedding in Annunciation Church in Washington, DC, July 1992
==Biography== Graham was born on March 11, 1912, in Sacramento, California, the son of Charlie Graham, a former professional baseball player for the Boston Red Sox and part owner of the San Francisco Seals, Graham joined the California province of the Jesuits as a young man. He was ordained a priest in 1941 and was soon sent to New York City to work on the Jesuit weekly ''America'', where he remained for two decades. Taking a sabbatical, in 1952, he earned a doctorate in political science and international law from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.
In 1959, his book, ''Vatican Diplomacy: A Study of Church and State on the International Plane'', was published.
To counter growing attacks, in 1965 the Vatican began publication of some of its wartime documents in a series of books edited by a Jesuit team, ''Actes et Documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre mondiale''. Graham joined them in Rome in 1966 and worked on volume three of what grew to eleven by the project's completion in 1981. In 1968, Graham published a book, ''The Pope and Poland in World War II'', a summary of Volume III of the ''Actes'', which deals with the Church in Poland.
Graham often published the findings of his research in ''La Civiltà Cattolica'', the Jesuit-run, Catholic journal in Italy. In 1996, Graham published English translations of some of his ''La Civilta Cattolica'' articles in his book, ''The Vatican and Communism During World War: What Really Happened''.<ref>{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=K0kBKrXmz6kC&pg=PA7 | last=Graham|first= Robert | title =The Vatican and Communism During World War II: What Really Happened|date=1996|page= 7| publisher=Ignatius Press| isbn=978-0-89870-549-2|via=Google Books}}</ref>
Graham often wrote a column for ''Columbia'', the official magazine of the Knights of Columbus.
In matters regarding Pius XII, he worked with Raimondo Spiazzi. The ''New York Times'' quoted Graham: "I am 79, I thought I ought to unload this stuff, before I pop off".<ref>''New York Times'', February 17, 1997, p. 31</ref> Graham remained in Rome until illness struck in 1996, when he returned to his native California. He died in Los Gatos, California, on February 11, 1997, aged 84, leaving behind a large body of published and unpublished work.
== Publications == *Alvarez, David and Graham, Robert A., ''Nothing Sacred: Nazi Espionage Against the Vatican, 1939-1945'', Routledge, 1997 *Graham, Robert A, ''The Vatican and Communism during World War II, What Really Happened'', Ignatius Press, 1996 *Graham. Robert A., ''The Pope in Poland in World War Two'', Veritas, 1968 *Graham, Robert A., ''Vatican Diplomacy: A Study of Church & State on the International Plane'', Princeton University Press, 1959
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9706/opinion/doyle.html Robert Graham, S.J.] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080212173836/https://www.catholicleague.org/piusxii_and_the_holocaust/defense.htm Defense of Jews and Others] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20051013060320/http://www.catholic.com/library/HOW_Pius_XII_PROTECTED_JEWS.asp Catholic Answers: How Pius XII Protected Jews]
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