As Secretary of State Montini coordinated the activities of assistance to the persecuted hidden in convents, parishes, seminaries, and in ecclesiastical schools. At the request of the pope, together with Pascalina Lehnert, Ferdinando Baldelli and Otto Faller, he created the Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza, which aided large number of Romans and refugees from everywhere with shelter, food and other material assistance. In Rome alone this organization distributed almost two million portions of free food in the year 1944. The Vatican and the Papal Residence Castel Gandolfo were opened to refugees. Some 15,000 persons lived in Castel Gandolfo alone, supported by the Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza. At the request of Pius XII, Montini was also involved in the re-establishment of Church Asylum, providing protection to hundreds of Allied soldiers, who had escaped from Axis prison camps, Jews, anti-Fascists, Socialists, Communists, and after the liberation of Rome, German soldiers, partisans and other displaced persons. After the war and later as pope, Montini turned the Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza, into the major charity, Caritas Italiana.[b]

Who requested Montini become involved in the Church Asylum movement?