What is the position of the Pope in the present war? [This essay was written in 1941.] What is his attitude toward the belligerent nations and the issues for which they are fighting? These are questions asked by many people, both at home and abroad. It is not difficult to point out to such people that certain deductions, wholly favorable to the Allied cause, must inevitably be drawn from a great deal that the Pope has said and written. His condemnation of totalitarian government is plain to read. But for men and women at war—and particularly for Catholics needing the support of their spiritual Father—this is not always enough. They want a day-to-day moral measurement of events. They want an answer to those who say—in Spain, perhaps, or in Eire—”The Pope is neutral. Why should we be more partisan than the Pope?”
This is not the place to discuss in any detail the delicacy and the complexity of the Pope’s position. But the Vatican Radio, broadcasting on July 29, 1940, in Italian for Italy, made the following clear and important statement:
“The Holy See has declared in the Lateran Treaty that it will take a neutral attitude toward the territorial problems of the nations and not interfere unless all interested parties, by common accord, make an appeal to the Pope to mediate for peace, in his capacity of a moral and spiritual power . . . To speak with the necessary competence one must know all the facts, and that is not possible under the present circumstances. As far as acts of inhumanity are concerned, the Pope has often, and clearly, raised his voice.”
From the outbreak of hostilities until shortly before Italy’s entrance into the conflict, L’Osservatore Romano was the only paper in Italy to give an impartial judgment and an informed description of events. One of the first signs of the Italian government’s belligerency was their order to L’Osservatore Romano to restrict its commentary to ecclesiastical matters. In similar case was the voice of the Vatican Radio, which we are proposing to discuss in detail. But before doing so, let us anticipate and answer the question as to how far the Vatican Radio and Press represent the views of the Supreme Pontiff. They are not, of course, under his immediate control; but, equally, they contradict neither his personal views nor the settled policy of his pontificate. That would be unthinkable. When someone is asked, or proposes, to give a broadcast talk, he must himself be persona grata to the Holy See, and his material must be submitted beforehand. Nothing contrary to the official policy of the Vatican would be passed for broadcasting or for publication.
Policy of the Vatican Radio
The Vatican Radio broadcasts in different languages to different countries, although its regular service is, of course, in Italian. Before the entrance of Italy into the war, it followed the declared papal policy of strengthening the forces of neutrality at home and of preventing the spread of the conflict abroad, while preaching insistently the ethics of international justice. It was outspoken in its sympathy for Poland, and it condemned no less loudly than the Pope himself the invasion of the Low Countries. All this was not in the least unexpected. What is remarkable, however, is the persistence with which it continued to tell the truth, even after the entrance of Italy into the war and after the silencing of L’Osservatore Romano. For twelve months it withstood every pressure brought against it by the Italian Fascists and their German masters.
What has been the general policy of the Vatican Radio? To whom are its broadcasts mainly directed? It will be best first to consider the utterances of the Vatican Radio which are addressed, in Italian, to Italians and others who have ears to listen.
These utterances are not concerned with the errors and the corruptions of democratic governments; they do not attack the indifferentism of the “neutral” State; they attack the foundations of German totalitarianism. The emphasis is marked and reiterated. It leaves no shred of evidence for believing that the Vatican is insensitive to the Nazi threat to Christian liberties. On July 30, 1940, it referred to a speech made by Dr. Ley at the National Socialist Congress at Nuremberg. Dr. Ley had said: “Life is made up of two things, blood and soil. These things determine our destiny. The doctrine of equality of human beings is a most serious threat to the destiny of Germans. The Germans cannot live under the same conditions as the fool or the Jew . . . All this theory of international solidarity is nothing more than a vulgar swindle at the expense of the Germans. It is not natural, but a perversion of nature.”
To this the Vatican Radio replied that the antidote to such teaching was to be found in St. Paul and repeated by Popes Pius XI and Pius XII in two encyclicals: Mit Brennender Sorge and Summi Pontificatus. The doctrine of human equality, it said, was the very heart of Christian revelation brought to the world by Christ, true God and true Man, who had united us to himself in one family, raising all from slavery and barbarism. That destiny was common to all men, Germans, Poles, Jews, and Christians alike. The doctrine of the equality of man was the basis of the greatest civilization the world had ever known—the civilization of Rome. The reference to Poland and the veiled criticism of the Italian government for allying the fortunes of modern Rome to Rome’s antithesis would not have been lost on the listener.
Vatican Radio returned to the charge on November 19, 1940. The Madrid newspaper, Alcazar, had published an editorial, seeking to clear National Socialism of the charge of irreligion. “National Socialism,” it said, “is primarily a religious movement based on Christian principles.” As evidence against this preposterous claim, Vatican Radio brought the bulk of the Nazi Party literature and the facts of the educational situation.
“With violence and with singular ability this literature has attacked Christianity and the Catholic Church both as a whole and in its personnel and institutions. It has even attacked the most essential dogmas of the Church. This attack has been carried out with the greatest possible efficiency while the Church has been hindered from the self-defense it should properly have employed. “As to the education situation, if National Socialism is a Christian movement as the Alcazar alleges, what is the explanation of the fact that, whereas in 1933 almost the entire Catholic youth was educated in Catholic schools, the whole magnificent school organization is now practically nonexistent?”
The announcer went on to cite the closing of monasteries in Austria and the confiscation of their goods, the deportation of priests from Poland, and the refusal to recognize canonical marriages without a declaration made before a State official. In reply to the argument that the Church in Germany received a large subsidy from the government, he stated that this was derived from church taxes paid by Catholics only.
Guardian of Truth
From the very beginning the Vatican Radio denounced the inveracity of German news reports, and it is again significant that it did so on October 25, 1940, when these had been appearing in a Spanish newspaper. It denied that the apostolic nuncio in Berlin would shortly leave his post and also that certain Catholic papers were being published, under ecclesiastical censorship, dealing with political, economic, and cultural as well as with religious matters. It also denied any knowledge of a protest by the German bishops against the activities of the R.A.F., pointing out that in this, as in all wars, ecclesiastical property was bound to suffer damage.
Similarly, in exposing the German report on the Church in Poland the Vatican Radio took the occasion of its publication in the Spanish press. It had no difficulty in showing the appalling sufferings of Polish Catholics in the areas incorporated in the Reich: 115 parishes out of 370 deprived of their clergy; 200 clergy of the Poznan diocese in concentration camps; the cathedrals of Poznan and Gniezno closed. Even in the area of the general governorship most of the larger seminaries had been requisitioned, the Catholic University of Lublin closed, and many university faculties of theology suppressed. The broadcast concluded with a broad hint to the Spanish Catholics: “There is not in Poland the flourishing religious life the writer of this report would have us believe. Rather the Catholics of Poland have grave need of the Catholics of the whole world to sustain them in their trial.” This exposure was sufficiently effective to rouse the anger of Nazi officials. They claimed, with superb effrontery, that the criticisms were not in keeping with the spirit of the concordat between Germany and the Holy See.
It has always been in the interests of German propaganda to pretend that the aggressive policies of the Nazi government command the sympathy of German Catholics and even of the Vatican itself. Thus, on February 24, 1941, the Vatican Radio was forced to issue three specific denials: “Firstly, that the German hierarchy had issued a joint pastoral letter, forecasting victory for Germany. Secondly, that Cardinal Faulhaber, Archbishop of Munich, had been invited by the Holy Father to reside at the papal summer villa at Castel Gandolfo. Thirdly, that Archbishop Orsenigo had been recalled from the nunciature in Berlin and replaced by a younger prelate.”
It will be remembered that Cardinal Faulhaber had been more outspoken than any other German ecclesiastic in his criticism of the Nazi government, particularly in its earlier days. But he was not alone. The archbishop of Freiburg was equally courageous; and, again, the Vatican Radio seized upon his words. The archbishop stated in his pastoral letter that “the present situation goes beyond the religious ruin of the sixteenth century. Two spiritual worlds stand face to face; these two worlds are as opposed as fire to water. The truths of Christianity are notoriously and fundamentally denied.”
These were strong words, and the Vatican Radio must have felt equally strongly to have quoted them. In April, 1941, a week or two later, it issued a statement on its own behalf, wholly confirming the archbishop’s fears. It cited the many grave disabilities under which German Catholics were suffering, and it delivered a trenchant attack on Dr. Rosenberg’s mythology. “It is said openly in public lectures, in most diverse places, that this one national religion is the will of the Führer. The ground is being prepared for Rosenberg’s church.” It added, significantly, that the neo-pagan movement was making rapid progress in Austria, Sudetenland, and particularly in Alsace. These are all districts in which traditional Catholicism is strong. Thus the Vatican Radio was under no illusions as to the consequences of any further extensions of the sovereignty of the Third Reich.
These few extracts, which could easily be multiplied, will have shown how watchfully the Vatican Radio has guarded the truth and how firmly it has proclaimed it. These were all general broadcasts. Let us now see how it addressed itself, and for what reasons, to separate nationalities, both in the Eastern and the Western hemispheres. [Space permits only the paragraphs relating to Germany.]
Condemns Nazi Persecution
Broadcasts to Germany have been frequent. In May, 1940, at the very moment of German military triumph, the Vatican Radio attacked the whole basis of Realpolitik in one of several broadcasts on the spiritual foundation of society: “The law of nature is based on reason and . . . living together cannot be based on urges and instincts but only on reason. The thesis that facts create rights is mere materialism.”
Nor was the Radio afraid to apply its principles to specific facts. The Schwarze Korps (organ of Hitler’s S. S. Bodyguard) had published an article on the black soldiers of the French Army. This maintained that it was a crime against nature to permit black soldiers to fight against white races and attacked the French for “following the creed of the Vatican, believing that baptism can transform the soul of a man.” The Vatican Radio took up the challenge, replying:
“1. That it is sufficient for a black man to be a human being in order to be able to claim a human soul and human dignity. The black race has proved . . . that it has been able to fill the gap between the primitive state and civilization. Black men have given proof that they can be a real asset to human culture.
“2. The allegation that it is a crime to allow colored people to fight against the white race reminds us that Germany made Negroes fight during the last war in East Africa.
“3. The movement of the black peoples toward the Catholic Church is becoming very considerable. There are at present over seven million black persons who have embraced the Catholic faith, and they are among its most valuable members. According to the statement of a well-known missionary . . . the deep faith and high morals he found in Africa are beyond comparison.”
A further broadcast, again addressed directly to Germany, did not spare the Nazi leaders who were asking for sacrifice in the name of honor: “The champions of the new creed demand the sacrifice of personal happiness in the service of custom, nation, and honor. But who are they? It is easy for those men with full pockets, with recently and quickly acquired country houses and castles, to come forward and preach the creed of heroism and self-sacrifice.”
The Vatican Radio continued to enlighten the German Catholics about the true condition of their Church. On February 13, 1940, it described “the main stages in the process of removal of the Catholic Church from German national life.” It cited the ban on Catholic Youth periodicals; the closing of private and convent schools; the closing of State Catholic schools in Southwest Germany, Brandenburg, Berlin, and Silesia; the stopping of religious instruction in technical and evening schools; the expropriation of Austrian monasteries; the indirect but efficient measures to prevent youth from taking part in religious services. The speaker also claimed that the reading and spreading of Pius XII’s encyclical letter Summi Pontificatus were to be closely watched by the Gestapo. The priests involved were to be denounced, and the police were instructed to prevent the printing and distribution of the whole text.
The Vatican Radio was naturally concerned with the situation in Alsace after the French collapse. It broadcast, in German, the following facts:
1. Hitherto the Napoleonic Concordat of 1801 has been in force. The German government does not recognize it.
2. In the future the Church will have to live on the taxes of the Catholics who have come of age.
3. The bishops of Strasbourg and Metz may not return to their sees.
4. Strasbourg Minster remains closed to public worship. It is open only for profane visitors, like a museum.
5. Education is a matter for the State and Party; the Church has no say in it.
6. Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls are compulsory for all children from ten years onward.
7. Institutions of the Orders have been much restricted. So far, all the Jesuit houses have been dissolved.
8. The episcopal seminary and the theological faculty of Strasbourg University are closed.
9. All Catholic organizations have been disbanded. They may only be revived under three conditions: acknowledgment by the government, surveillance by the government, submission to the directive of the government.
10. The Catholic press is suppressed. Only a few ecclesiastical bulletins remain.
11. At the end of December, 1940, 20,000 persons had been expelled from Alsace, including sixty priests.
It was the sad, familiar story wherever the swastika met the challenge of the cross.