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The Pope 
in the World Today 

C
ARDINAL GASPARRI had resigned as 

Papal secretary of state. 

That was world pews, and the newspapers 

of the country started scurrying around in 

thElir morgues for all possible information on 

him. They found little enough. So one of 

the New York newspapers wired me. Could 

I get to them a two· thousand· word biography 

of the cardinal? That sounded like an 

easy assignment, so I accepted it. 

Cardinal Gasparri was very close to the 

Pope. In fact in the election that made 

Pius XI Pope, Cardinal Gasparri was one 

of the leading candidates. His retirement 

marked the close of his service as Papal 

secretary of state under two Popes. He was 

in touch with every important statesman of 

the world. He knew intimately the affairs 

of all nations, civilized and semibarbarous. 

He had signed with Mussolini the Lateran 

Treaty, which gave the Vatican City back to 

the Pope. He was prominent in so many 

important world movements, from the great 

Catholic Liturgical Movement to the Papal 

activities in behalf of starving Russians, 

that his influence was international. 

No Books 

Yet the St. Louis public library, usually 

adequate, had not a single book or article 

-1-



about Cardinal Gasparri. The files of the 

St. Louis University library, which should 

have a record of living Catholic men, yielded 

nothing. So I had to scrape my memory, 

call on my well·informed friends, and page 

the morgues of newspapers for facts about 

one of the world's leading men. 

You see, Cardinal Gasparri is closely as-

sociated with the Pope and the Vatican. 

And while almost all Americans know that 

there is a Pope and have read about Popes 

like St. Peter and Gregory the Great and 

Hildebrand, they generally know less than 

nothing about the reigning Pope. To most 

Americans the Holy Father is just a nice old 

gentleman (perhaps) that the traveler in 

Rome visits after he has seen the Colosseum 

by moonlight and has tossed a penny into a 

Roman fountain. Everyone however has 

heard about the "bad Popes"; but even 

if a thousand dollars were laid on the line, 

the educated man could probably get as far 

as naming Alexander VI and would then stop 

right there. 

But Pope Pius XI? Even educated Catho-

lics know scarcely anything about him. And 

the Vatican? It's a building with a thousand 

rooms (or is it?), a sort of parish house for 

St. Peter's. Or maybe it's an art gallery. 

World Figure 

Yet if there is a world figure in our gen-

€ration, Pope Pius XI is that figure. He 

rules a spiritual empire of some four hun-

dred million citizens. In truly democratic 

fashion he was raised from relative obscur-

-2-



tty to a dominant position in the affairs of 

our age. Indeed one wishes that people 

would stop talking about the Popes of the 

past and would concentrate for a few mIn-

utes on the Pope of the present. The Popes 

of ancient days, saints and sinners, martyrs, 

heroes, statesmen, fanatics, all of them hu-

man beings with frightful burdens upon 

their shoulders, affected the course of his-
tory. No other line of rulers even remotelyr 

compares in influence and power with the 

line of Popes. But those other Popes belong 

to the past. Pope Pius XI belongs to the 

present, and he has stamped the present 

with a force and wisdom that merit him 

more than the casual glance that most 

Americans give him. 

"Ripleyisms" 

We might begin this brief study of Pius 

XI and our own times by borrowing from 

the method of the well-known Robert 
Ripley: 

Believe it or not, the present Pope was 
not the first choice of the last College of 

Cardinals; another man was first elected, 

and still another was thought to be the suc-

cessful candidate. Also Pius XI is not an 

Italian by birth. 

When after the death of Benedict XV the 

cardinals assembled to choose a successor, 

Cardinal Laurenti, head of the Propagation 

of the Faith, was elected. He received the 

two-thirds vote that is nel!essary for elec-

tion. 

But Cardinal Laurenti declined the high 

honor. "It is my desire that this exalted 

-1\-



offic <l be given to another who is stronger 

and "better able to carry the heavy burden," 

he said. And the cardinals, looking about 

for the stronger and abler man. found him 

in the sturdy mountain climber Achille 

Ratti. 

And the people who were waiting outside 

the Vatican believed that the honor had 

gone to another cardinal. A druggist had 

received an order of medicine for Cardinal 

Tacci. "Ah!" said this amateur detective. 

"Cudinal Tacci is ill. He must be overcome 

with some excitement. What excitement? 

Clearly he has been elected Pope." And 

the people and the newspapers leaped to the 

conclusion that the druggist was right and 

that Tacci was the new Pope. 

Not Italian 

Achille Ratti, present Pope, is by birth 

Austrian. Desio, his birthplace, a little town 

about ten miles from Milan, is in Lombardy, 

and on May 31, 1857-the date of Achille 

Ratti's birth-Lombardy was still part of 

the Austrian empire. In fact Lombardy re-

mained Austrian throughout the early years 

of Achille's childhood. Then Victor Em-

manuel and Garibaldi drove the Austrians 

out, and the people of Lombardy became in 

fa ct. as they always had been in spirit, 

loyal Italians. 

Achille was the fourth son in his family. 

(The two-child families of birth-control in-

famy receive no approval from Pius XI.) 

His father and mother were very poor, 

and Achille, born in a three-room apartment 

-4-



on the second floor of a three-story house, 

was rendered his first lullaby by the weav-

ing machines that were in the adjacent 

room. Peasants, first of the soil and then 

of the new machine age, the Rattis knew 

poverty. Pius XI was later to feel and ex-

press the keenest interest in and concern 

for the poor and the laboring man. For 

these were the ones he had known from his 

birth. 

"A Lombard," says an Italian proverb, "is 

a man who goes through a stone wall head 

first." Achille Ratti was a Lombard. And 

it has taken more than stone walls to hold 

him back from the things he believed should 

be done for God and God's children. 

Student Days 

A remarkable record at school won him a 

place in the Lombard Seminary in Rome. He 

arrived there in 1876 just as the horrible 

modern Roman conquest was breaking the 

hearts of Catholics the world over. Victor 

Emmanuel and Garibaldi had taken Rome 

and the Papal States from the Pope with-

out so much as a by-your-Ieave. They had 

shot their way into Rome; and when the 

Pope shut himself up as a voluntary prisoner 

in the Vatican, the hoodlums and the anti-

clericals of Rome started hunting down 

priests in the streets, and the orient lodges 

of the Freemasons enacted laws and initi-

ated policies to strip the Church in Italy of 

all power and prestige and opportunity. 

The young seminarian Achille Ratti knew 

that often it was dangerous for a clerical 

-5-



student to walk the streets of Rome. He 

was in Rome when the riffraff set upon the 

funeral procession of Pius IX and tried to 

throw the Pope's body into the Tiber. He 

saw good Italian Catholics torn between 

their love for the Church and their love 

for their country. And during those student 

days there must have been born in his 

heart the great hope that he was one day 

to realize in the Lateran Treaty, that made 

peace between the Italian Government and 

the Church. But the young seminarian never 

dreamed that he would be the man to 

negotiate that treaty. 

The Training of a Pope 

The training of the future Pope was in 

God's own providential hands. From the 

day of his ordination he seemed fated for 

obscurity. He was a modest assistant in a 

parish. He became and remained for thirty 

years and more chaplain in the convent of 

Our Lady of the Cenacle. Later, remember-

ing the convent's retreat work for the laity, 

he was to encourage lay retreats. He de-

voted himself with real affection to the 

poor; he taught catechism to poor chil-
dren, and the chimney sweeps of Rome were 

his favorites. Later he was to revive and 
give force and purpose to the Confraternity 

of Christian Doctrine. 

But he was early assigned to what he 

thought would be his life's work. He be-

came, strangely enough, a librarian. For 

approximately thirty years he worked in 

the great Ambrosian Library of Milan, the 

library that was begun in those days when 

-6-



St. Ambrose was bishop of Milan and Milan 

was one of the great centers of world learn-

ing. His success there brought him to the 

attention of Rome, and eventually he be-

came librarian of the vast collection of 

books and manuscripts in the Vatican. 

So there among the books in the Am-

brosian and the Vatican libraries, with 

catechism as his great recreation, he studied 

history, learned the customs and traditions 

of the peoples and races that make up the 

complex thing known as humanity, and be-

came more and more the scholar. But never 

for a moment did he cease to be the man. 

In the Alps 

For in strange contradiction to his schol-
arly instincts he came to be known as one 

of Europe's great Alpine climbers. 

I must confess that when I first read that 

Achille Ratti, Pope Pius XI, was a great 

mountain climber, I looked upon it as the 

usual publicity puff. If the famous or im-

portant men in the public eye have even a 

moderate skill in anything outside their 

work, they acquire a reputation that is far 

in excess of what they deserve. Was the 

Pope's reputation for mountain climbing 

exaggerated? 

As a matter of fact the records show that 

he was a magnificent Alpinist. Once he 

saved the life of a companion who fell from 

a ridge of the Gran Paradiso into a glacier. 

He was the first to climb the highest peak 

of the Monte Rosa ridge from the Italian 

side. Entirely alone he achieved the heights 

-7-



of the Matterhorn. He climbed Mont Blanc 

and came down by a descent that at that 

time had not been attempted by more than 

half a dozen others: 

Twice Trained 

Certainly Achille Ratti was getting a train-

ing of mind and body that make under-

standable the vigorous, tireless accomplish-

ments of his pontificate. If he had remained 

a librarian, he might have been a theorizing 

bookworm. If he had been just an Alpinist, 

he might have been no more than a sturdy 

athlete. But the parish priest who was a 

librarian and who was building that rugged 

athletic body to match the activity of his 

mind was a man on whom the burdens of 

the Papacy could be placed with confidence. 

Probably the most surprised man in Rome 

was the Vatican librarian who after the 

close of the World War was called from his 

manuscripts and his Alpine stocks to go as 

Papal delegate to the new republic of Poland. 

He was chosen simply because he was the 

one man in Rome who seemed to know most 

about Polish history and traditions - and 

that knowledge he had got from the books 

on his library shelves. Overnight the li-

brarian became a diplomat. And, astonish-

ingly versatile, he became an outstanding 

diplomat. 

Delegate to Poland 

Poland was a new nation, sewn together 

again by the Treaty of Versailles. Russia, 

Germany, and Austria had each unwillingly 

given up her pilfered third. And, while 

-8-



Pilsudski was marshalling his armies against 

the advancing Russian Reds, Paderewski 

was trying to weld the pieces of Poland 

into a nation. Papal Delegate Ratti found 
the new land almost in panic. The Russians 

were sweeping across the land. The Church 

had had no chance to adapt her organization 

to the new nation. The constitution was be-
ing born under gun and fire. And on August 

14, 1921, the Red Army of Russia camped 

outside the city of Warsaw. 

From the start Monsignor Ratti won the 

affection of the Poles. He understood the 

knightliness of their hearts. He saw the 

strength of their Catholicity. He suffered 

with them as their country, newly released 

from foreign subjugation, was being overrull 
with half-savage Reds. 

Crusading Pope 

Monsignor Ratti made history. He waged 

a crusade of which any of the Crusade Popes 

would have been proud. Let Pilsudski di-

rect the armies of Poland. The priest and 
legate was ready to marshall another army. 

On the eve of the feast of the Assumption 
the future Pope organized a great religious 

procession in the city of Warsaw. Under 

the leadership of the legate one hundred 
thousand Poles marched through the streets, 
begging Mary to save Poland as she had 

saved Europe at Lepanto and again at the 
gates of Vienna. 

The Poles will tell you that Mary an-

swered their prayers. With the dawn of 

.Kugust 15 the Red Army began its retreat, 

a retreat that did not end until the Bolshe-

-9-



vists were across the borders of Poland and 

the country had been saved. It is no won-

der that Poland has never forgotten her 

legate who was to become her Pope. 

This close and frightening contact with 

the Bolshevists, this first·hand opportunity 

to study communism on the march made a 

lasting impression on Achille Ratti. When 

he became Pius XI, the pictures of those 

terrifying days were still clear in his mind. 

He could not do otherwise than call for a 

modern crusade of prayer and propaganda 

against the men and the forces that he had 

seen shaking their Red fists outside the 
Catholic city of Warsaw. The Pope's fight 

on communism began in the Papal legation 

of besieged Poland. 

He was recalled from Poland to become 

archbishop of Milan, his own beloved city. 

For a brief period of less than a year he 

was cardinal. He went to Rome to help 

elect a Pope, and he remained in Rome. He 

was the Pope his fellow cardinals had 

elected. 

The World of 1922 

Pius XI came to the throne of Peter in 

1922. How far away that year seems! How 

different is our world from the world over 
which the new Pope lifted his strong hand 

in blessing! 

The war of 1914 was stilI a near and bit-

ter memory. The wounds of the world had 
scarcely begun to heal. Men and nations 

were stilI torn with the blows they had 

sustained when the human race went mad 

in fratricidal hate. 

-10-



The Treaty of Versailles was still in force, 

and the world was divided between the con-

quered and the conquering nations, with the 

conquerors squeezing vainly at the hearts 

and the treasuries of the vanquished. 

Italy was a land of divided parties. Anti-

clericals and the orient lodges of the Free-

masons were high in power; they had built 

their great monument to Victor Emmanuel, 

and the face of the Masonic king glared 

straight at the Vatican and at the Pope who 

dwelled there. Socialists and communists 

and anarchists fought with the Catholic 

Popular Party, the trade unions, and the 

monarchists of various brands. 

When Achille Ratti left Milan for Rome, 

he left behind him a journalist by the name 

of Mussolini, a man whose followers wore 

black shirts chiefly because black shirts 

were a saving on laundry bills. The division 

between the Church and the state was ap-

parently beyond healing. Society was di-

vided into the whites, who followed the gov-

ernment, and the blacks, who followed the 

Pope, and it seemed fated that never the 

twain would meet or speak. Labor was dis-

organized. And Italy came to see herself 

as the only victorious country that had been 

left hungry when the banquet tables were 

spread in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. 

Different From Now 

Germany was crushed by the Treaty of 

Versailles. The Ruhr was occupied by an 

allied army. Commission after commission 

was wrestling with the problem of how to 

-11-



force an unwilling and apparently bankrupt 

Germany to pay indemnities she never 

meant to pay. A Catholic was at the helm 

of the German government, struggling to 

win back the friendship of the world. The 

Catholic Center Party held the balance of 

power. And Hitler was an obscure agitator 

who was regarded as a bit of a nut. 

The League of Nations gave promise of 

growing strong, despite the fact that the 

United States had rejected it in a national 

election. Japan was still a member of the 

league, though no one believed that the 

savage bear that was Russia would ever be 

admitted to the halls of Geneva. And of 

course the Pope was never mentioned in the 

counsels or the plans of this international 

body. 

Postwar and Interwar 

Ireland and England were carrying on 

their guerilla warfare. The Action Franljaisll 

still boasted many an important Catholic of 

France, and the French soldiers, returned 

from the World War, were telling the gov-

ernment that they were sick of the nasty 

persecution of their Church. The Mexican 

persecution was still in birth struggles. In 

America the era of king stock and queen 

bond was initiated under the premiership of 

Harding and of Coolidge. 

Russia? Well everyone was waiting to see 

how long it would be before the Bolshevists 

blew up and the Soviet Union became some-

thing less significant than the Oneida Col-

ony. Lenin was very much alive. Trotsky 

was at the head of the R ea Army. Stalin 

-12-



was a name hardly known. The Russian 

war on religion was reaching its climax in 

the wholesale arrest and execution of priests 

for saying Mass, the wholesale slaughter of 

peasants for honoring an icon. Famine 

strode the vast reaches of the country, and 

millions starved to death in a land that had 

the richest resources in the world. 

Chaos 

Catholic missions were in a state of col-

lapse. Missionary priests had returned from 

their chapels and schools to fight in the 

armies of Europe. The countries that had 

long supported the missions- France, Spain, 

and Germany-were bankrupt. The pagan 

world regarded with cynicism a gospel of 

love preached by representatives of nations 

which had reached an all-time high in an 

exhibition of vindictive hate. 

And to relax from the tension of the war, 

men threw themselves into the madness and 

false merriment and moral laxity of the 

postwar period. It was the age of the fiap-

per and the lost generation, of jazz and 

drink and the repeal of reticence, of whoopee 

and lounge lizards and "red-hot mamas." 

Into that chaotic world stepped the li-

brarian who was also a mountain climber. 

He began by calmly setting aside tradi-

tions. Since Pius IX had made himself a 

prisoner in the Vatican, no Pope had looked 

out from the enclosure of that voluntarily 

accepted prison. But the new Pope, Pius 

XI, stepped out on the great balcony over 

St. Peter's, and the throngs within the fold 

-13-



of the Universal Church went mad with joy 

as Pius XI blessed first them and then all 

the people of all the world. 

In a second gesture he set aside another 

convention. He reappointed Cardinal Gas- . 

parri, the secretary of state of his predece·s-

sor, and left intact the personal household 

of the dead pontiff. 

The Pope's Daily Order 

He did not have time to bother with the 

rearranging and reshuffling of officials. For 

on the day following his coronation, Pope 

Pius XI plunged into that routine of work 

that has won him the title of the hardest-

working man in Europe. 

Since so little is known about the Holy 

Father, I should like to set down the daily 

order that Pope Pius XI has been following, 

except in periods of real sickness, since the 

year 1922: 

Six o'clock: He rises. 

Six-thirty : He says Mass, sometimes with 

people present, sometimes alone. 

Seven-thirty: He eats a continental break-

fast-coffee and a roll. 

Eight-thirty: He is on his way to his 

office. 

Nine-thirty: The work of the day begins. 

First the cardinal secretary of state calls. 

Then come the cardinals who head the vari-

ous congregations and departments. The 

cardInals in the Papal government corre-

spond to the President's cabinet members 

in our government. Next come the bishops 

·who have come to Rome to give the reports 

- 14-



on their dioceses. Then come the diplomats 

of the foreign nations who have business 

with the Holy Father. Prominent persons 

tollow . with their reports or requests. Thus 

three hours are spent with a succession of 
people. 

Afternoon 

Twelve: The public audiences begin, rang-

ing in size from half a dozen people to six 

or seven thousand. These last until two 

o'clock. 

Two: The Pope goes back to his desk to 

arrange his program for the next day. 
Lunch follows, during which time his secre-

tary reads to him. Lunch consists of one 

kind of meat, a vegetable, a salad, and fruit. 

Occasionally Pius XI drinks wine, but spar-

ingly. He then lies down for about fifteen 

minutes and says some of his office. 

Three·thirty: He walks, no matter what 

the weather, in the Vatican gardens. He 

ends his walk at the grotto of Our Lady of 

Lourdes and the shrine of the Little Flower. 

Five: Interviews are resumed. He sees 

visitors, works with his secretaries, and oc-

casionally gives audience to one of the 
larger pilgrimages. 

Eight-thirty : He has his evening meal. 

This is usually very like his lunch, with 

the possible addition of soup. He always 

eats alone. Following the evening meal, he 
says evening prayers with the members of 

his official family. 

Nine: He retires alone to his study. There 

he reads, studies, writes, and takes care of 

-15-



the innumerable details that have accumu-

lated during the day. He reads extensively 

and, through a standing order for all im-

portant new books in Latin, Italian, French, 

German, English, Spanish, and sometimes 

Greek, keeps abreast of philosophy, theology, 

and history. 

Twelve, midnight: Lights are out, and 

the Pope is in bed and usually asleep. 

That is the day of Pope Pius XI; surely 

his worst enemies could not accuse him of 

being an idler. 

Easy to See 

The Pope undoubtedly has the distinction 

of being the most accessible ruler in the 

world. Indeed no other person in the world 

meets at one time anywhere near the num-

ber of people that the Pope meets daily. 

Even the numbers at the occasional New 

Year receptions of our Presidents are 

dwarfed by comparison with, the numbers 

that the Holy 'Father meets daily. 

When as archbishop of Milan he gave his 

first talk, he stated his attitude toward his 

people. That attitude was strengthened and 

broadened when he became Pope. To his 

people of Milan he said: 

"Let no one ever prevent your coming to 

me. Do not think, because you are young 

or poor or humble, that the steps which lead 

to your father's house are steep or, no mat-

ter how high they may be, that you cannot 

easily climb them. If you are young, hum-

ble, poor, wounded by life, or broken by its 

burdens, then my message to you is that of 

-16-



the Redeemer: 'Come to me, all you that 

labor, and are burdened.' You have a special 

right to be easily and always received in 

your father's house." 

Over a Million People a Year 

He has consistently maintained that 

policy, except when he was too ill to be 

assisted to the audience room. Anyone may 

see him. The only restriction is that no 

one, not even a newspaper man, ask him 

questions. So newlyweds and the peasant 

and the Cook's tourist and the prince and 

the general and the believer and the unbe-

Hever, the cynic and the saint, the rich and 
the poverty-ridden, pilgrims on special tour 

and pilgrims from the unemployed-all come 

to see him and to listen to him. 

During one year his ring was kissed by 

one million two hundred thousand people in 
audience. 

Around the Pope 

St. Peter's, the Pope's own church, is the 

central church of Christendom. The Vatican 

is the White House, the Number 10 Down-

ing Street, of the Catholic world. But the 
Vatican is even more; it is the Catholic 

Washington, D. C., with all the departments 

concentrated practically under one roof. 

The central figure in the Vatican is of 

course the Holy Father. But in his dealings 

with the four hundred million Catholics 

throughout the world and the uncounted 

other millions he is assisted by large bodies 
of olricials. 

First in rank among these officials is the 

-17-



cardinal secretary of state. He is the Pope's 

official representative to the world. Under 
him are three departments: 

1. The Secretariat of Ordinary Affairs. 

2. The Congregation of Extraordinary Af-
fairs. 

3. The Chancellery of Apostolic Briefs. 

Almost all the not strictly spiritual affairs 

of the Church come under the jurisdiction 

of one of these departments; all documents, 

whether they deal with spiritual or other 
affairs, and many of the spiritual arrange-

ments are handled by these departments. 

In addition the Papal secretary of state, like 

our American secretary of state, directly 

meets and confers with the diplomats and 
representatives of foreign nations. 

Congregations 

Next in order of importance come the 

cardinals who preside over the various con-

gregations. Each congregation is in charge 

of some special department of Church af-

fairs, such as the Propagation of the Faith, 

Bishops and Religious, Seminaries and 

Studies, the Eastern Rites, and so on. 

The world-wide Church, with its incredi-

ble variety of nations and races, is occupied 

with so vast a series of questions and prob-

lems and decisions that it may safely be 

said that no other government in the world 

has so many things demanding constant at-

tention. Everything from the discussion and 

clarification and official pronouncement of 

Catholic truth to matters of Church disci-
pline must be handled by the Vatican. The 

- 18-



relationship of bishops to their people, of 

religious orders to their varied enterprises 
-this and much more comes under the scru-

tiny and supervision of Rome. The congre-

gations of the Vatican are intensely-busy 
and seriously occupied groups of men who 

are trained for their work and who are 
carrying that work through with astonishing 

efficiency. 

Most famous of these congregations is the 

well· known Rota, which is really a court of 

appeals. Each diocese has its ecclesiastical 
court, especially for the hearing of marriage 

cases. Appeal from these courts is made 

first to the archdiocesan court and then to 

the Rota. Thus the Rota becomes, not 
merely a court of appeals, but, except in 

rare cases that go to the Seignatura, the 

supreme court of appeals. 

Rome is the Pope's own diocese. But be-

cause the Pope's time is so largely taken up 

in world-wide work, the cardinal vicar of 

Rome is the official who is actually in charge 

of the city of Rome. He serves as a sort of 

auxiliary bishop for the city and under the 

Holy Father administers the diocese of 
Rome. 

In the Papal Court 

Attached to the Vatican are the members 
of the diplomatic corps, who represent the 

foreign nations, ambassadors, ministers, leg-

ates, secretaries. Not all the nations of 

the world are represented here, but many 

of them are represented. 

A tremendous volume of secretarial work 

is connected with the carrying through of 

-19-



the Vatican's mass of business. Hence there 

are separate departments for this secretarial 

work alone. 

Next come the members of the Papal 

household, who are in charge of all that 

concerns the care of the Vatican and its 

grounds. 

St. Peter's has its own special cardinal, 

who is assisted by a college of canons that 

are in a sense the parish priests of the 

basilica. 

The Vatican libraries, the galleries, the 

Papal printing presses and art workshops 

have their own staffs, many members of 

which live on the grounds. 

Guards 

The Papal guards are world-famous. Best 

known are the Swiss Guards, who wear the 

famous uniform designed by Michelangelo. 

The Noble Guards do sentry duty in the 

Papal apartments. This group is made up 

of members of important Catholic families, 

'Usually from Italy, and the position of the 

guard is purely honorary. The Italian Gov-

ernment appoints its own police to care for 

the routine work of supervising crowds in 

Vatican City. But only such supervision is 

necessary, for Vatican City is the only crime-

tess city in the world. 

The heads of religious orders and com-

munities are not directly connected with the 

Vatican. But most of them are located in 

Rome, which harbors the head of the 

Church's government and is the capital of 

Christendom. 

-20-



One pauses for a few minutes to try to 

realize the vastness of this organization 

which deals with the world-wide Church. 

And then one learns with astonishment that 

the total yearly expenditures of the Vatican 

approximate two million dollars. The United 

States could not run Washington from nine 

o'clock to noon on that money. And in 

truth it is difficult to see how the Vatican 

manages to work on that sum. This much 

is certain: Any talk of the extravagance of 

Rome is worse than ridiculous. 

In, Not of 

Now the Church, of its nature and by its 

constitution, is spiritual. It deals with faith 

and moral:::. Its one and only concern is the 

advancement of the kingdom of Christ. ~ 

Christ clearly stated that His kingdom 

was not of this world. And the Church con-

stantly echoes His statement. 

Important in that statement however is 

the preposition of. Christ said, "My king-

dom is not of this world." H e did not say, 
for He could not possibly say, "My kingdom 

is not in this world." The plain fact is that 

the kingdom of Christ, though it can n ever 

belong to or be a part of this passing world, 

exists in this world because the world needs 

it. It can never belong to the world, but it 

must work among the people of the world. 

:!For the mission of the Church, like the mis-

sion of Christ, is the salvation of those 

people. 

Never must that fact be forgotten. The 

Church cannot leave the world. It cannot 

-21-



fail to be affected by what is going on in 

the world. An American who is living and 
working in Germany may say, "I'm not of 

your country"; but the things that are glr 

ing on in Germany affect him intimately and 
constantly. 

Like the British Empire? 

Mr. William Teeling in his recent book, 

"Pope Pius XI and World Affairs," compares 

the Church to the British Empire. He 

notes that both exist throughout the world. 

He points out that both unite the greatest 

variety of people and races. He calls at-

tention to the fact that both are faced with 

the constant realization that what pleases 

some of their members displeases others; 

what some of their members like, otbers of 

their members hate. 

In many respects this comparison is a 

sound one. The Church, like the British 

Empire, is made up of many and different 

races, colors, nations, traditions. But the 

comparison cannot with justice be ca·.·ded 

very far. 

In spite of a complete lack of those ma-

terial things which hold the British Empire 

together, the Church is held together in a 

closeness of thought and practice that is 

unique in history. It has no material power 

of any kind, no army, navy, police, or secret 

service to help maintain its unity. It can 

present its laws, but the only means it has 

of carrying them into effect are threats and 

promises about another world. It has no 

unifying bonds of commerce or trade or 

temporal advantage. In the past the Cath-

-22-



oUc in many countries was, and today in 

almost all countries is, financially and so-

cially handicapped. This union of divergent 

elements in the Church should strike the 

student of human affairs as little short of 

a miracle, if not an actual miracle and one 

of the greatest. And · it is through the in-

dwelling of the Holy Spirit that the Church 

achieves this remarkable unity. The British 

Empire can hardly claim a unifying force 

such as the Paraclete. 

Narrow Horizons 

We of the western world have one great 

disadvantage: We ordinarily think only in 

terms of our own nations and our own 

civilizations. To the average American the 

civilized world is the United States, parts of 

Canada, and certain countries of Europe. 

Beyond that his eye scarcely travels and his 

interest never strays. The rest of the world 

is interesting or amusing or exotic or queer 

or a pleasant place for a holiday. 

Of course no other attitude could be less 

in accord with the facts than this American 

attitude. The people of Europe and the 

United States may for the time seem dom-

inant in world affairs. But they are far, far 

from being even the major part of mankind. 

Americans certainly do not as a rule give 

any indication of world-minded ness. Their 

horizon is quite limited. Their vision is 

beyond the remedy of mere glasses. 

World-Wide 

Now nothing is more obvious than is the 

tact that the Church is a world-wide organ-

-23-



ization. The interests of the Pope must be 

the interests of all mankind. He lives in 

Rome, but his mind and heart must go to the 

farthest inhabited sections of the globe. 

He must see the tremendous growth of the-

Church in the Antipodes. He must remem-

ber for example that the two dominant na-

tionalities in Canada, each of which differs 

in its attitude toward the faith, are both. 

loyal Catholics. This year ~he Pope planned 

a Eucharistic Congress in Hungary; only 

yesterday it was in the Philippines; shortly 

before that it was in Argentina; and just. 

before that it was in Chicago. China sends 

out a cry for more bishops, and Labrador 

wants more missionaries. Some of the great· 

est conversion work ever known to history 

advances at a tremendous pace among the-

African tribes of the Uganda. 

During the brief time that I sat in the-

antechamber where I waited for my audi-

ence with the Holy Father, I saw a cross 

section of the Universal Church pass before-

my eyes: a bishop of an obscure Eastern. 

rite, the newly appointed bishop of Lenin· 

grad, an Italian monsignor, an Australian 

Knight of St. Gregory, the head of a large-

religious order. And I, a Jesuit from the-

United States, sat and marveled. 

The Pope's First Year 

The world-wide character of the Pope's 

interests cannot be more clearly indicated' 

than by citing the account of one year's 

work. When Mr. Teeling in his book dis· 

cussed at considerable length the work to 

-24-



which the Holy Father put his hand during 

the first fifteen months of his pontificate, he 

was giving a graphic picture of the world 

that flows before the eyes and through the 

mind of a modern Pope. 

Here is a record of merely the outstand-

ing interests and activities of the Pope dur-

ing that year, 1922-1923: 

The new Pope, Pius XI, hoping to stop the 

communist war on religion, offers the olive 

branch to Russia at the Genoa conference. 

His offer is rejected. 

Though he fails in this, he does not lose 

his interest in Russia. Working with' the 

. American Red Cross and using as his agents 

American Jesuits, he launches the Papal 

Relief Expedition for the starving Russians. 

The election in Holland puts the Catholic 

party in power but splits the Catholic ranks. 

He watches the Center Party of Germany 

as it works for German rehabilitation. 

In a scholarly letter to Cardinal Bisleti he 

urges the cardinal prefect of studies to 

exhort priests to read the classic Latin 

authors. 

He asks that the Italian Women's League 

continue its war on divorce. 

Variety 

To twenty-two Catholic gymnasts of Bel· 

gium, who, dressed in their uniforms, have 

come to seek audience with him, he talks 

on Mens sana in corpore sana. 

He transfers the Society for the Propaga-

tion of the Faith from Lyons to Rome. 

-25-



He confirms the National Catholic Welfare 

Conference for the United States. 

Representatives of four hundred thousand 

Italian young men who have had audience 

with him are shortly afterward attacked by 

anticlericals. Undaunted, representatives of 

Italian young women visit him and express 

their loyalty. 

He exchanges a series of telegrams with 

Mustapha Kemel Pasha, asking mercy for 

the Greeks, many of whom are being slaugh-

tered. 

He opens the new College of Oriental 

Studies in Rome. 

He asks the British Government to sup- · 

port and back the Christian missions. 

Mussolini takes Rome, and the conse-

quences to state and Church are profound. 

All the Nations 

Prince Andrew of Greece calls on the 

Holy Father to thank him for saving his 

life when he was about to be executed in 

Athens. 

The Pope writes a strong appeal to the 

nations, begging for peace and asking mercy 

for the conquered nations. 

He names St. Francis de Sales the 

heavenly patron of newspapermen and 

writers. 

He opens promising negotiations for diplo-

matic relations with the Japanese Govern-

ment, but the Buddhists' objection ends hope 

of friendly association. 

-26-



He carr1es on a long serles of diplomatic 

advances to save Archbishop Cieplak an4 

the fourteen other priests who are con-

demned to death in Moscow. 

He opens negotiations in an attempt to 

end the troubles between the English and 

the Irish. 

He is visited by Monsignor Seipel, prime 

minister of Austria and the only cleric in 

high government control. 

He sends the Golden Rose to the queen 

of Spain. 

He lays down the first plans for a mission 

exhibit to be held at the Vatican in 1925. 

The archbishop of Saragossa is shot for 

trying to form Catholic trade unions in 

Spain. 

Certainly Pope Pius XI has tried to in-

clude the whole world in his ken. He is a 

man to whom the farthest country and the 

most remote human being are absorbingly 

interesting. 

"Pope of the Missions" 

Characteristically the present Pope has 

been called "The Pope of the Missions." 

Nowhere else is his world-minded ness bet-

ter shown than in his attitude toward the 

missions. For the missions are the Church's 

means of carrying the kingdom of Christ 

"to every creature" and to the ends of the 

earth. 

I have previously indicated that Pius XI 

on his accession found the missions disor-

-27-



ganized and, as a result of the World War, 

in a state of collapse. In his first encyclical 

on the missions he laid down a broad pro-

gram, one to which he has been steadfast 

throughout the years. 

No nation, he insisted, was too backward 

or too weak to provide in time its own native 
clergy and its own bishops. Indeed until the 

countries, even those most recently con-
verted, were able to supply the Church with 

the priests and bishops to minister to the 

people, the work of Christianizing the world 
was scarcely begun. 

Missionaries, he declared, would be wise 

to realize that customs, traditions, ideas, 

and ideals differ from people to people. 

He even suggested that Catholic churches 

in mission lands be built in native styles of 

architecture. 

The Pope demonstrated that beyond all 

else he believed that the missionary is in no 

sense a representative of his individual coun-

try; the missionary is a representative of 

the Universal Church. It is not the task of 

the mission priest to foist the customs and 

practices and forms of his own country upon 

the new converts. He is to make his con-

verts citizens of the kingdom of Christ. 

Once he goes to the mission fields, he is to 

think of himself as belonging only to Christ 

and the Church. He is a man without family, 

without country; he is a bearer of Christ 

and a citizen of Christ's limitless kinr;dom. 

The Roman Question 

Our political viewpoints are limited, and 
even good Catholics in the United States 

-28-



are likely to be perplexed by the famous 

Roman Question. Wasn't it really a good 

thing for Italy that Rome was united with 

the Italian kingdom and was made the 

capital? What does the Pope want a king-

dom for anyhow? What's all the fuss about 

property and state rights and independence? 

Wouldn't the Pope be freer if he were not 
an independent sovereign and were able to 

devote all of his time to the spiritual con-

cerns of the Church? 

Yet Americans can find in their own his-

tory a. parallel which should serve to make 

the position of the Pope clear. When the 

thirteen colonies united in a federal gov-

ernment, each colony wanted to have the 
capital in its territory. 

Wisely, very wisely the states agreed 

that no state should have that honor. If the 

capital of the United States was to have its 

full prerogatives, if it was to be over all the 

states and free from the control of any 

state, if all the citizens of all the states 

were to have free access to the centrai' gov-

ernment, then the capital must not be lo-

cated in anyone state. 

So the states carved out a neutral ground, 

made it an independent district, and estab-

lished the seat of central government there, 

in the new District of Columbia. 

Must Be Free 

That attitude of central neutrality has 

been the Church's historic attitude toward 

the center of Christendom. The Pope must 

not be under the domination of anyone na-

-29-



I 

I 

tion. The capital of the Church must not 

be within any state. Since the capital of 

the Church belongs, not to anyone nation 

or people alone, but to all the world, no one 
nation or people should be able to say: "The 

center of Christendom and the government 

of the Church is in our country. The Pope 

is a citizen of our land." The Pope, as the 

ruler of Christendom, could not rightly be 

the citizen of anyone nation. And all na-

tions and people must feel that they have 

free access to their spiritual ruler, the Vicar 

of Christ on earth, and that he has the freest 

possible communication with them, without 

need for any permission, be it ever so freely 

granted, from any nation. 

A national church (the Universal Church 

has always r egarded this ?llrase as a con-
tradiction in terms) may have its center in 

the capital of the nation that claims it. The 

Universal Church must not be subject to any 

one nation. 

"Prisoner" 

When Victor Emmanuel and Garibaldi 

took Rome, the Pope feared, and justly, that 

the Vatican would become just another 

Italian building. He lived, not in an inde-

pendent state, but in Italy. He was in truth 

and in the eyes of the Italian Government a 
Roman citizen. Free communication with 

the children of the Church was impossible. 

Freedom in the use of the mails, wireless, 

newspaper, and freedom of independent 

travel were all denied him. He had ceased 

to belong to the whole world. 

This position was abhorrent. The liberty 

-30-



of the Church was being imperiled. Indeed 

when the World War broke out, the Pope's 

position was extremely difficult. Here was 

Italy at war with Austria and Germany. The 

Pope could not take sides in a struggle that 

involved all his children. He must have free 

communication with even those countries 
from which Italy had recalled her represent-

atives. 

As a matter of fact serious consideration 

was given to the possibility of moving the 

Pope and his entire household and the gov-

ernment of the Church to Switzerland or to 

Spain. Only the most positive guarantees to 

the effect that his communications to even 

the warring nations would be entirely free 

and uncensored brought to at least a tem-
porary conclusion the question of the Pope's 

moving from Italy. 

No Free Approach · 

But the intolerable situation continued. 

The head of the Universal Church lived 

under the domination of one nation. 

To reach him, his spiritual sons and 

daughters had to come into foreign territory. 

To reach them, he had to use the means 
prescribed by a foreign nation. 

He was not free. Not even the symbols 

of freedom were his. Postage, railroads, 

coins- all symbolic of a free and complete 

country-an army, which is the country's 

outward sign of its ability to enforce its 

laws-these were denied this pontiff. 

Thus there arose the Roman Question. 

The Pope wanted only one thing: freedom. 

-31-



Freedom to communicate with his sons and 

daughters. 

Because the Italian Government made this 

freedom impossible, the Pope refused to deal 

with that government, and Italy and the 

Church were at irreconcilable odds. 

Mussolini Arrives 

Then Mussolini took Italy, and with it 

Rome. 

It is odd-or shall we say providential?-

that the Pope and il Duce both came from 

Milan. Achille Ratti, archbishop of Milan, 

had treated Mussolini decently. Mussolini, 

who, it was known, was not a practicing 

Catholic, asked Cardinal Ratti for permis-

sion to bring his Black Shirts to a solemn 

celebration in the Milan Cathedral. To 

everyone's surprise the dauntless archbishop 

gave that permission; and when Mussolini 

and his small group of fascists arrived, they 

were given a place of honor near the altar. 

There Is another story that I heard in 

Rome, a story which mayor may not be 

true. While it bears the marks of authen-

ticity, I cannot give it as exact history. Dur-

ing the War Pope Benedict XV took care of 

the families of many of the poor soldiers. 

One day by mistake the name of Mussolini's 

family appeared on the list of those that the 

Pope took care of. As he was checking over 

the names, his secretary paused. 

"We should strike this family from the 

list, Holy Father_ They are the wife and 

children of a noted socialist and anticleri-

cal." 

-32-



The Pope lifted his hand. 

"Even if that is true, we cannot let women 

and children starve." 

The names remained on the list. 

According to the story Mussolini was told 

about this incident; he never forgot it. As 

he rose to power, among his determinations 

was that of peacefully settling the whole 

Roman Question. 

Mussolini Plans 

Whether or not that story is true, Mus-

solini came into power with a firm resolve to 

fight communism. Unlike Hitler, Mussolini 

was smart enough to realize that the strong-

est possible ally he could have against com-

munism was the Pope, who had seen com· 

munism at work in the Polish invasion, and 

the Catholic Church, which hated the athe-

ism, the slave state, and the materialistic 

immorality of communism. 

Besides, Mussolini was determined to have 

a united Italy. Again he was smart. What-

ever their political leanings, the Italians 

were Catholics, and Italy could never be a 

united nation until Italians felt that they 

could be Catholics and patriots at the same 

time. Moreover he knew from personal ex-

perience the harm that the plots and 

schemes of the Freemasons were doing to 

Italy. And there again he wanted the friend-

ship of the Church to further his plan for a 

united Italy. 

"What's the Minimum?" 

So negotiations were quietly begun. The 

question was: What is the very least that 

-33-



the Pope will accept? The Holy Father had 

long refused the annual income which Italy 

offered him in "payment" for the theft of 

his states. An income was not freedom. In 
fact for the Pope to accept a salary from 

the Italian Government was for him to ad-

mit explicitly his lack of freedom. 

And the Pope's terms again proved Pius 

XI to be a man who thought of the whole 

Roman Question in terms of the world: 

First he must be free. He must have a 

state, however small, that is the property, 

not of any nation, but of the Universal 

Church. 

Then to prove that he is free, he must 

have those symbols of freedom which show 

that a state is sovereign, not controlled by 

any other state. He must have his own 

postal system and stamps. He must have 

his own railroad. He must have his own 

telegraph and radio station. He must be 

able to coin money, since all sovereign states 

may do this. He must have an army, even 

though he would deliberately make that 

army useless and obsolete; in an age of 

tanks he would equip his army, as the Swiss 

Guards are equipped, with halberds, or, as 

the Noble Guards are equipped, with orna-

mental swords. These symbols of freedom 

he must have. He must be able to reach 

his people without outside hindrance. His 

people must be able to reach him freely and 

easily. 

Then he asked that Italian law be brought 

into conformity with canon law and that 

-34-



Christian education be guaranteed to Italian 

children. 

Treaty Is Signed 

Mussolini conceded all these terms. The 

Lateran Treaty gave back to the world a 

free Church, and the nations and their peo-

ples saw the Pope no longer held captive by 

one nation but supreme and free within the 

borders of his independent state. 

It is interesting to learn how quickly the 

Pope acted in all this. He asked only for 

Vatican City, the Lateran-because it is the 

first church of Christendom - Castel Gan-

dolfo-his summer home-and the College of 

the Propaganda. Small demands these seem 

when one realizes that in Rome the Papal 

arms are on every important buildin~, from 

the QUirinal Palace, which is the residence 

of the king, to the smallest hospitals and 

schools. For Popes were responsible for the 

construction of these buildings. 

Immediately after the treaty had been 

signed, the Pope opened a post office and 

issued his own stamps. He built a little 

railroad station. He opened a radio station. 

Vatican City began to coin its own money. 

His tiny army, dressed in ancient armor, 

presented arms. The symbols were there. 

The world now knew that the father of 

Christendom, the Vicar of Christ, was free. 

A free Church in a free state, beyond the 

control of any other power on earth, was 

assured. And the Roman Question was 

settled. 

-35-



The Pope Speaks 

It was the Pope's world view that made 

him plunge at once into the two great world 

problems that are still immediate world 

problems: the modern state in its relation-

ship to capital, labor, and government; the 

modern attitude toward marriage. 

The Papal encyclicals have become so 

famous that it is not necessary to discuss 

them here at length. Every educated person 

knows that an encyclical is an official mes-

sage from the earthly head of Christendom 

to the whole world. It mayor may not 

contain infallible pronouncements. But it 

does give that opinion which is infallibly 

and exclusively safe. 

The famous encyclical on labor and the 

state, "Quadragesimo Anno," was in a sense 

a restatement and an amplification of Leo 

XIII's magnificent "Rerum Novarum." But it 

was more than that; it was the splendid 

effort on the part of the man who stood at 

the helm of the Bark of Peter, an effort to 

steer a course between the stupidity of 

selfish, Godless money-making and money-

grabbing and the savagery of communism, 

which denies to a free man the right to own 

anything. It reaffirmed man's right to private 

property, but it also struck at that selfish 

abuse of private property that has precipi-

tated the economic woes of the world. It 

pleaded for a reorganization of the state on 

the principle of justice for all. It visioned 

a world governed by the principles of the 

living wage and secure employment, a world 

in which the rights of the individual and 

-36-



.he rights of the family were preserved and 

respected. 

To the Married 

The terrific modern bombardment on mar· 

riage called forth the great encyclical on 
marriage, "Casti Conubii." Here the tradi-

tional Christian ideals of marriage were 

stated in modern terms; the great objectives 

of marriage were recalled to a world that 

was beginning to see in marriage only an 

excuse for self-gratification. The evils that 

blast marriage were pointed out-divorce, 

sexual laxity, birth control. All mankind 

was reminded that in marriage they received 

a great sacrament and that upon the right 

use of that sacrament depended the future 

of the human race. Married people and 

those about to be married were exhorted to 

safeguard that sacrament and to remember 

that marriage is less for themselves than 

for their children, who depend on that sacra-

ment for safe entry into the world. 

The accession of the present Pope saw 

the opening rounds of that battle between 

the two world forces that at present occupy 

the arena of the globe. Communism had 

gripped Russia and was threatening to take 

possession of China, Italy, France, Spain, 

Poland, Germany, and a dozen other coun· 

tries. Fascism was a rapidly growing force 

that seemed to center around one man, Mus-

solini. 

His months in Poland had shown Achille 

Ratti the real character of communism. He 

had seen its face; he had felt its hot, stink-

ing breath. He knew it for what it was: 

-37-



professedly, or vauntingly rather, brazenly 

anti-God and antireligious in all its forms, 

against property, against Christian morality, 

and against freedom for anyone and every-

one who disagreed with it. He had come to 

hate communism as a theory of atheistic ma-

tl;lrialism that seemed sworn to destroy the 

souls of men_ He had come to dread it as 

a crusading force that was arming for ruth-

less war, a war to conquer all nations. 

Unknown Force 

Fascism on the other hand, while it was 

known to exist, was not yet a force to 

reckon with. Only this had Achille Ratti 

seen when he was archbishop of Milan: The 

man Mussolini was determined that com-

munism should not gain power in Italy or, 

if he could help it, in any other part of the 

world. Mussolini's fascistic tendencies were 

something about which no one had very 

clear ideas. Fascism was not professedly 

anti-God; on the contrary it had made over-

tures to religion. It was not antireligious or 

antiproperty or antimoral. Had fascism other 

elements of danger? Was it antifreedom? 

No one as yet knew. 

In speech and in writing the Holy Father 

indicated that he believed that fascism did 

have other elements of danger. He did not 

like its glorification of the state. He fought 

fascism when it stated its determination to 

control the education of the children. He 

deplored its growing militarism and pleaded 

with all the nations, whatever their form of 

government, to stop the insane race for in-

-38-



creased armaments and the mad effort to 

foment war. 

Wanted, a Champion 

It was clear however that Achille Ratti, 

when he became Pius XI, looked for a 

champion who could fight the monster com-

munism. Without asking for permission or 

a blessing, Mussolini had dedicated himself 

to that fight. Outwardly fascism was not 

professedly against all those things that are 

so necessary for a Christian life. The evils 

of fascisIJ? were largely unknown. Mus-

solini wanted peace with the Church, and 

he meant to make war on international com-

munism. What could be more natural than 

that the Pope who had felt the hot breath 

of communism in Poland should hope that 

perhaps in Mussolini and the as-yet-unknown 

fascism he had the champion that he was 

seeking, the force that would drive back 

the atheistic, antimoral, freedom-destroying, 

inhuman and antihuman communism? 

But it is important for us to know that 

the Pope has never given any written or 

spoken approval to fascism as such. He has 

maintained the traditional stand of the 

Church: Christ did not approve or disap-

prove of any properly constituted form of 

government; the Church hl).s existed under 

all forms of government; it will never ex-

plicitly declare any particular form of govern-

ment to be essential and absolutely correct; 

it will never fail to give its support to any 

government that grants its citizens justice 

and opportunity for the exercise of human 

rights; it will condemn only those forms of 

-39-



government that are opposed to human 

rights, that reject an authority ultimately 

rooted in the will of the people, and that 

fling aside the basis of all true authority, 

the authority of a supreme and omnipotent 

God. 

Because communism alone among all the 

governmental forms in the world is pro-

fessedly anti-God, anti-human rights, and by 

its philosophy and practice the enemy of all 

religions, and because he could not make 

peace with this enemy of God and religion, 

the Pope issued his famous encyclical on 

atheistic communism. He has spoken and 

written about those principles in fascism 

which are dangerous to religion and to man's 

rights. But so long as fascism does not be-

come the open enemy of God and human 

rights, the Holy Father will maintain the 

same silence about it that the Popes of past 

ages maintained about all the· forms of gov-

ernment, from monarchy to democracy, from 

empire to republic, that did not threaten 

men's fundamental rights. 

The Pope and Ethiopia 

But what, demands the man who watches 

all Papal activities with a critical eye, about 
the Pope and Ethiopia? Italy rushed off to 

the conquest of a free and independent peo-

ple. The Pope remained silent. Should he 

not have risen up and denounced Mussolini, 

who led the people into the war? Should 

he not have forbidden the Italian Catholics 

to take up arms in this cause? 

Mr. Teeling makes a great point of this. 

The archbishop of Canterbury, he points out, 

-40-



denounced Mussolini and the war in Ethi- . 

opia. He called upon the Pope to join him 

in that denunciation. The Pope, Mr. Teeling 

tells us, lifted neither his hand nor his voice 

while a guiltless people was being victim-

ized. And the Pope, we are assured, thereby 

definitely sided with fascism and unjust 

wars of conquest . 

It is necessary to remember a few impor-

tant points about the Pope's situation before 

one can even give ear to the voice of Mr. 

Teeling and the other critics who de-

nounced the Pope. 

Let It Be Remembered 

First we must remember that Vatican 

City is an independent state, not a part of 

Italy. It is as independent of Italy in gov-

ernment and in control as is the United 

States. Now whatever we may think of the 

principles of nonintervention, the practice of 

modern governments has been not to inter-

fere with the private affairs of other inde-

pendent nations. Thus in practice the United 

States was silent about Italy and Ethiopia. 

President Roosevelt as head of our govern-

ment, a government independent of Italy, 

said nothing about the whole matter. Yet 

he was no more independent of Italy than is 

Pope Pius XI. The Pope in not interfering 

was acting according to the accepted policy 

of modern governments. 

The League of Nations did, it is true, im-

pose sanctions. Just how far the l~ague in-

tended these sanctions seriously and hon-

estly is another question. But certainly the 

-41-



United States did not follow the league's 

lead; since it was not a member of the 

League of Nations, the United States did not 

consider itself bound to follow that lead. 

Interestingly enough the league had 

pointedly not invited the Pope, the head of 

Vatican City, to become a member of the 

league. In fact the Pope's exclusion was 

notable and deliberately intended. So the 

Pope was in the same diplomatic position as 

was the United States. The United States 

did not follow the policies of the league, of 

which it is not a member; the Pope did not 

follow the policies of the league, of which 

his state too is not a member. 

In view of our actual practice we can at 

least understand why the Pope did not de-

clare himself in the Halo-Ethiopian situation. 

Again the subsumption: But Mussolini as 

a Catholic is subject to the Pope. And the 

answer: I have never been able to find the 

slightest evidence of Mussolini's being a 

practicing Catholic. While I was in Rome, 

I made every effort to learn whether or not 

Mussolini had made his Easter duty; 'no evi-

dence was forthcoming. I was told in 

guarded fashion that "he attended church on 

state occasions." Trustworthy authorities 

on the other hand have flatly stated that 

Mussolini is not a practical Catholic. 

Return to Middle Ages 

One point that has been omitted here, 

though I have referred to it in the handling 

of another subject, is that for centuries the 

reigning Popes did interfere when monarchs 

-42-



waged unjust wars. They even deposed 

kings who stole territory. And those were 

the very actions that the Protestant reo 

formers declared were most villainous as-

sumptions of power on the part of the 

Popes. So it came about that the nations 

simply told the Pope to stay out of all inter-

national affairs. And today the Pope is 

taunted by his enemies because he does not 

revive the medieval practice of . his pred-

ecessors, a practice which similar enemies 

of the Pope once so furiously denounced. 

Let us bring the question a little closer to 

home. I believe that most honest AmerI-

cans admit that our war on Spain in 1898 
was a pretty shabby affair. Our newspapers, 

notably the Hearst sheets, whipped our na-

tion to a frenzy. The letter which the queen 

regent of Spain sent to our President, offer-

ing conciliation, was suppressed. The blow-

ing up of the Maine was not investigated 

until many years later, and even then the 

public was allowed to know nothing of the 

evidence. Yet we rushed in and beat a sup-
posed enemy that had never really ap-

proached our shores. 

Now what would the people of our coun-

try have felt had the Pope in 1898 declared 

that our war on Spain was unjust? Just 

what would have been the state of mind, the 

torn and anguished feelings of Catholics, 

had the Pope ordered them to act against 

their government? And what would our 

American histories say about "the Pope's 

interference" in American affairs? 

The problem becomes very acute when the 

-43-



problem is our own. But the Pope did not 

speak. So we can hardly be too severe on 

him for not placing Italian Catholics in the 

ciilemma in which he might have placed 

American Catholics. 

We Ask the Archbishop 

We might turn now to the archbishop of 

Canterbury and ask him a few questions. 

Let us suppose that when England waged 

war upon the Boer Republics-a war to take 

over the rich fields and the diamond mines 

of South Africa-the Pope had stepped in 

and declared the war to be unjust-as in 

truth it was-and had forbidden the Irish 

Catholics in the English army and all other 

Catholics of the British Empire to have any 

part in that war. What would the arch-

bishop have said about that? And what 

would the world have said of the Pope's 

interference? 

Now I can readily understand why the 

archbishop of Canterbury, an Englishman, 

objected to the aggressions of an Italian and 

to the imperial policy of Italy. It was quite 

natural that he should call upon the Pope to 

join him in his objections. But the arch-

bishop of Canterbury is in a rather stronger 

political position in his own country than 

the Holy Father is in Italy. The archbishop 

of Canterbury is the official government-

appOinted and government-supported head of 

I.he English Church. He is the official keeper 

of the country's conscience. He is not, as is 

the Pope, the ruler of an independent state; 

he is. as the Pope is not, a temporal and a 

. -44-



spiritual leader of the members of his 

church. He is the man appointed by the 

government to rule the English Church. 

England Sets Example 

Now if anyone fact is clear, it is the 

fact that during the years when England 

was building up her empire the succeeding 

archbishops of Canterbury were silent as a 

sphinx. They said nothing when England 

boldly entered and conquered India. They 

uttered nothing but pious blessings when 

England destroyed the republics of South 

Africa. They watched in silence while Eng-

land waged wars of conquest in every part 

of the globe. 

The present archbishop of Canterbury has 

had ample opportunity to rebuke his own 

government for activities not too unlike MilS· 

solini's conquest of Ethiopia. There was the 

struggle of the Irish to obtain their freedom 

from England, and the Black and Tan war, 

which the English waged for the purpose 

of holding Ireland captive. There was 

Ghandi's pacific struggle to obtain a free 

government for his people in India. There 

was the rioting on the streets of the 

Egyptian capital when English troops rode 

down the natives who clamored for freedom 

from England and her domination. It was 

England that set the example of founding 

puppet states, an example that Japan was 

later to follow in China. 

Silence 

And in all these instances where the con-

science of England was concerned, the pres-

-45-



ent archbishop of Canterbury kept a charm-

ingly naive silence. He broke that silence to 

demand that the Pope condemn the aggres-

sion of the Italian Empire. But he should 

never have broken that silence. For he 

could not say, "Do this. I have set you the 

example here in England." 

But two wrongs do not make a right. 

And if the Pope's silence on the Ethiopian 

question were wrong, the fact that England's 

primate has been wrong in maintaining 

silence on similar questions would still not 

justify the Pope's stand. But it should be 

remembered that the Pope, above and be-

yond his duties and responsibilities as a 

spiritual, not a political, leader of all the 

members of the Catholic Church, has the 

duty of viewing every issue with a world-

seeing eye. The Church sees today and to-

day's happenings sub specie aeternitatis, in 

the light of eternity. 

Let's Suppose 

Let us suppose then that in a burst of 

righteous indignation the Pope had de-

nounced Mussolini's war in Ethiopia and 

had forbidden Italian Catholics' participation 

in that war. What might have happened? 

1. Mussolini could, with half a regiment, 

have taken Vatican City. Two Italian bomb-

ers could have leveled the pitiful little 

Vatican state to a ruin. The hard-won and 

essential freedom of the Church might have 

been lost and the Pope once more made a 

prisoner in the Vatican. The freedom which 

now permits the Pope to communicate and 

-46-



deal with the world might have been lost. 

And all this for the sake of a gesture against 

a single nation. 

2. Catholics have been instructed that the 

Pope is their leader in faith and morals. 

He can lay down principles of government 

too, as the present Pope has in his en-

cyclicals. But he does not rule Catholics 

in their temporal affairs. Had the Pope for-

bidden Italian Catholics to fight, they would 

have faced a frightful alternative: loyalty to 

their country or obedience to their Church. 

Consequences 

3. The recently-healed breach between 

Italy and the Church would have been split 

again, wider than ever and with frightful 

harm to the Church and the future. 

4. Only a little time has passed since the 

war in Ethiopia was ended, but already the 

nations have repealed the sanctions, and 

most of them have simply admitted the de 

facto existence of the Italian Empire in 

Ethiopia. The Pope was world-wise; he 

knew from history and from experience that 

this would happen. Whenever in the history 

of the world a strong nation has taken over 

the property of a weak nation, the other 

strong nations have discreetly turned their 

eyes away and after a few years have pre-

tended that the theft never happened and 

that the strong nation always controlled 

that stolen territory. The Pope knew well 

that if he protested against Italy's activities 

in Ethiopia, in the event of the certain-to-be-

successful war the other nations would de-

-47-



) 

sert him in his stand, would come to accept 

Italy's position-as they actually did-and 

his protest would be an eloquent futility. 

5. The Pope cannot confine his vision to 

the affairs of one nation and one people 

alone. He must see the whole earth and all 

the nations. Had he denounced Mussolini, 

lost the Vatican state, and been made a 

prisoner, what would have been the effect 

upon the course of all history? One false 

step on the part of a Pope, and the future of 

millions is jeopardized. And the Pope must 

not risk the future of millions of Catholics 

for the sake of a single heroic gesture that 

would have been, as everyone knew, doomed 

to frustration. 

Summary 

Pope Pius XI has been and is a world 

figure. But the Pope in every age is a world 

figure. Even those who deny the faith that 

is Catholic must grant that the Pope rules 

from "a city seated on a mountain." Ac-

cessible to all, the Pope is the center of 

world scrutiny; yet he is a figure strangely 

unknown, even to his own followers. But 

it is a consoling thought that in Rome dur-

ing these past few years there has dwelled 

a Pope that is simple, hard-working, gentle, 

learned, saintly, broad of vision, energetic 

of achievement, with an eye for all the 

world and a heart for all mankind, a leader 

of whom this generation can be justly proud 

and for whom Catholics can feel only the 

deepest reverence and love. 

-48-



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