Aug. 6, 1962 - The Vatican City newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said today that Marilyn Monroe was a “victim of a symbolic form of life that had been forced on her by other people.” In an editorial on her death, it said she was “sadly exemplary” of many others who were destroyed by fame. In expressing its “profound pity,” the newspaper said she was the “victim of a mentality, of a custom, of a concept of life which makes one a symbol.” The paper said that her death should inspire “sincere reflection” and that “now, at least, she ought to be respected.” In Paris, meanwhile, no event in recent times created such a stir as the death of Miss Monroe. It was the leading story in almost every Paris newspaper, with banner headlines and multiple pages of pictures and text.
