16 France and the Vatican

The history of the diplomatic, political, and social relationship between France and the Vatican is a remarkable one, and should be borne in mind by every reader concerned with the influence exercised by the Vatican in shaping modern history. For in few countries has the Catholic Church been so powerful and yet so weak; in few countries has it had to recur to such subtle and unscrupulous means in order to assert, preserve, and even strengthen, its authority in a nation in which its influence has waned from year to year.

The climax of the Vatican’s machinations in France was reached in the decade preceding the Second World War and during the four years of Nazi occupation. This we shall relate concisely later. But before the examining the important role that the Vatican played in the downfall of the Third Republic, and in the installation of a semi-Fascist, semi-Nazi Catholic authoritarian State, it is necessary to study, even if briefly, the historical background to the relations between France and the Vatican, and thus see in their true perspective the events which we shall relate.

As is well known, the Catholic Church has exercised an enormous influence in the political and social life of France for centuries, and until the French Revolution it enjoyed a privileged position in the country. It had supported the Monarchy since the early Middle Ages. The Crown, in return, had granted important prerogatives of all kinds to the clergy, who, in fact, constituted the first of the three estates of the realm. The Church had possessed vast lands and enormous wealth, and had exercised a virtual monopoly of education. All this ended, however, with the outbreak of the French Revolution, through whose agency the Church suffered a very serious setback. Church and State were separated, the religious Orders were suppressed, the status of the clergy disappeared, the Church’s lands were declared national property, and the control of education was transferred to the State.

The Catholic Church, of course, was bitterly hostile to the French Revolution and fought its principles with all her might, not in France only, but throughout Europe. With the rise of Napoleon the relations of Church and State began to improve, and although there were many bitter controversies between Emperor and the Pope, the Vatican on the whole maintained fairly good relations with the French dictator. So much so that Napoleon, when pressed by socio-political considerations, concluded a Concordat with the Papacy―as later did two other dictators, Hitler and Mussolini.

Since the Revolution France has never been sincerely Catholic. Not only did the ideas of the Revolution remain deeply ingrained, but the attitude of the Church, after the fall of Napoleon, instigated Frenchmen to detach themselves from allegiance to it. The Holy Alliance placed on the throne of France a dynasty of monarchs whose main concern appeared to be the bludgeoning of the people into submission to the Pope; and the means employed were those known today as the “White Terror.” When that dynasty fell, France ceased to be wholly Catholic; indeed, the Church has rapidly and consistently lost ground.

With the establishment of the Third Republic, in 1870, the cooperation initiated by Napoleon came to an end. We have already seen the reasons which induced the Catholic Church to support monarchies, dictatorships, and the like, and to wage war against any form of popular government. These motives came into play then in the social and political fields of European life as they have done since, up to our own day.

It would be interesting to compare the diatribes of the Pope, the French cardinals, and the clergy against the Republic with the invective they have used during the last thirty years against Socialism, Communism, and Soviet Russia. Then, as now, the Church proclaimed “a holy crusade against the Godless Republic, ” and the duty of opposition to “the Atheist Government” seeking to deprive the Church of “her inalienable rights.”

But the most striking feature of that period, closely resembling the happenings of our own times, was the birth of the Commune and the Church’s reaction thereto. The Paris Commune of the last century was, in miniature, the forerunner of Soviet Russia in the twentieth century. Both were a bogy to the Catholic Church and to all other reactionary sections of society.

It is, of course, a comparison of small things with great to compare the Commune with the achievement and duration of the Soviet Revolution; nevertheless, the Commune gave to the world a foretaste of how the Catholic Church would behave when similar circumstances were repeated, as they have been. Naturally, the Catholic Church did everything in her power to “sabotage” the Commune. The clergy of France, with Catholics in general, were called upon to destroy it. The Vatican pronounced anathemas against its spirit, its principles, and its leaders both during its existence and ever since. Above all, the Vatican took this opportunity to launch a moral crusade against the ideas inspiring the Commune by emphasizing to the middle class its inherent dangers to them. The warning included all other reactionary classes of society and all persons who had reason to fear the “Communards” of 1871.

The Church and reactionary thought have always been close allies. Their intimate partnership in this fight aimed at setting up reaction once the Communards had been crushed.

A period of reaction duly followed the Commune. For a few years France again became more Catholic. In 1875 it was estimated that in a French population of 36,000,000, about 30,000,000 described themselves as Catholics. This total was chiefly due to the fact that France was then a very poorly industrialized country and the ignorant agricultural classes were much under the sway of the bourgeois politician and, above all, the clergy. The Church was granted great privileges, and for a time she seemed to have triumphed over the laws passed against her at the beginning of the Third Republic.

But once the scare of the Communards had passed, the artificial fear, fostered by the Church and other interested sections, disappeared; before 1880 France once again almost ceased to be a Catholic country. The Church in France, directed by the Vatican, now increased her attacks on the Republic. Accordingly, the Republic retaliated by passing successive laws calculated to hinder the power of the Church over the social and political life of the nation.

At every hostile measure the Church and the Vatican invoked the curse of God and the help of all Catholics to destroy the Republic for daring to give free education to the people, for insisting on civil marriage, and for confining the teaching in State schools to State-classified teachers. Fulminations came weekly from the Vatican, the cardinals and the clergy mobilizing the Faithful against the Government and Republican institutions of all kinds. Their aim was to compass the complete downfall of the Republic. The Vatican, in fact, preached incessantly to the French people that the Government they had elected must be destroyed, otherwise their eternal salvation was imperilled. For over twenty years the Vatican stubbornly refused to recognize the existence of a Republic in France.

Then suddenly the Vatican, which was the true source of all this hatred, changed its policy. It did so because realization had come at last that the Republic would last and that it was wiser, from the Vatican’s point of view, to make such terms as were possible.

This course the Vatican now determined to follow. The “New Spirit” bore fruit in the administrative and legislative fields. But unity in the Catholic ranks was essential to success, and incredible fanaticism, dissensions, and hatred prevented unity; when a farsighted Catholic, Jacques Piou, organized the Action Liberals in 1902 it was too late. In July 1904 diplomatic relations between France and the Vatican were finally broken and the Act of Separation, in 1905, brought the conflict to a climax. The Act guaranteed freedom of conscience and the free exercise of public worship, but religion was not to be recognized by, nor to receive financial support from the State.

The Vatican pronounced anathema on the Republic for daring to deny the supremacy of the Catholic Church and for putting all religious creeds on the same footing. But that was not all. The Republic, having denied the control and monopoly of religion in France to the Vatican, had decreed that the edifices of all religious bodies, Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish, should be transferred to associations cultuelles, associations dealing with public worship, and that these were to be self-supporting. The Vatican, vaunting the peculiar claims of the Catholic Church, forbade Catholics throughout France to obey the Republic and thus again intruded on the domestic life of the nation. French Catholics were strictly forbidden by the Pope to be parties to any such association, under penalty of grave punishment in the next world.

During and after the First World War, owing to factors of various kinds, relations between Church and State improved. The devoted war-time services of the clergy and the return of Alsace-Lorraine, with its large practicing Catholic population, constituted two of these factors. One of the results of the Act of Separation had been the impoverishment of many of the clergy, and the consequent reduction in their standard of living brought them nearer to those among whom they worked.

Before depicting further the background of the relationship between the Vatican and the Republic during the Second World War, let us investigate the strength of the Church in France over a period extending roughly between the two wars.

As said before, notwithstanding the anti-Catholic and anti-clerical spirit prevailing in France during the last hundred years, France remains traditionally a Catholic country. In 1936 it was estimated that 34,000,000 Frenchmen, equivalent to 80 per cent of the population, were nominally Catholic. Almost three-quarters of these limited their Catholicism to baptism, marriage, and burial by the Church. Otherwise they took no part, active or passive, in the life of the Church, and a large proportion were even hostile. The practising Catholics, attending Mass and Confession more or less frequently, were computed by the Catholic authorities themselves to have amounted to between 20 and 23 percent of the total French population―clearly an insignificant minority.

Both class and region have an important bearing on the proportion of practising Catholics. This should be borne in mind when we come to deal with the events leading to the signing of the Armistice and with the Government which co-operated with the Nazis. The most fervent Catholics are to be found among the aristocrats, the landed gentry, the military caste, and the wealthy or well-to-do classes. Among the lower middle class (petite bourgeoisie) probably one-third are practising Catholics. Most are indifferent to religious issues and a small minority is actively anti-clerical.

As in all nominally Catholic countries, in France the industrial proletariat is the least Catholic element. In a few districts, and notably in the region of Lille, a small minority only of the workers in heavy industries, such as textiles, and on the railways is actively Catholic. The ratio is higher, however, among the employees of light industry and small business. It should be also noted that the Church is more deeply rooted in country districts than in towns.

Notwithstanding the general indifference of the population, the Church has a vast organization throughout France, co-ordinated by a Catholic machinery disproportionate to the real sentiment of the nation.

To begin with the inferior clergy of the Catholic Church. Before 1940 the ordinary priesthood was estimated at 52,000 individuals, of whom 30,000 were secular priests and the remainder regulars. Ruling this army of ordinary priests are the bishops, about seventy in number, not including twenty-six bishops without sees. The bishops, in turn, are subject to the archbishops, each of whom presides over an archdiocese containing four or five dioceses, each in the charge of a bishop.

There are three cardinals, the Archbishops of Paris and Lyons and the Bishop of Lille.

The archbishops and bishops are the immediate assistants of the Pope, who directly supervises some of the French bishoprics endowed with high political importance, such as the Bishoprics of Strasbourg and Metz. The bishops are in charge of education within their sees, and each diocese has a directeur, who supervises the schools controlled by the Church.

All these dignitaries of the Church are directly responsible to the Pope’s own representative, the Papal nuncio. The Church is subject to his authority, when there is a nuncio accredited to the French Government. The primary duties of the nuncio are, of course, diplomatic; he is the centre from which radiate the Vatican’s diplomatic and political negotiations.

There are so many hundreds of religious Orders in France that it is impossible accurately to give a general account of their organization. Each Order of monks, friars, or nuns has its own administration and maintains its particular relationship with the episcopate. Some Orders are virtually independent of the bishops and are responsible only to the Holy See. Others co-operate closely with the bishops, especially teaching Orders. Orders of Nuns also accept the bishops’ direction. The Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, Benedictines, Oratorians, and Cistercians constitute a few of the most important Orders.

For centuries the Jesuits have been the most influential Order in France, despite persecution. Their great influence, before and during the war, arose from the fact that they are a teaching Order, laying great emphasis on cultural and intellectual standards. The Jesuits in France, as elsewhere, have specialized in educating, and thereby obtaining a permanent hold over, the aristocracy, the Army, and the leading classes generally. Thus they have trained thousands of officers, subsequently attaining high rank, at the Ecole Sainte Genevieve at Versailles, which is a preparatory school for Saint Cyr, whence the regular Army officer used to be drawn. The upper and middle bourgeoisie also send their sons to the Jesuit colleges, and the Jesuits, too, train boys for leadership in the Catholic Youth movement and the like.

We have seen the Church in France, in spite of her vast organization, was losing her members―to Secularism and Liberalism in the nineteenth century, and in the twentieth century to Socialism and Communism. During the last century the Church lost one-fourth only of her adherents, whereas the present century has witnessed a loss of six-sevenths of her flock.

In spite of this the Church in France has not lost influence in proportion to her loss in numerical strength; indeed, in the period between the two wars, she has proceeded from strength to strength. How can that be explained? The explanation lies in the fact that the Church in France, as elsewhere, no longer relied on the conversion of the masses for her influence; she relied, rather, on power acquired and exerted behind the scenes. This was quite obvious after the First World War, when the Republic, although still based on the former principles and inspired by the liberal spirit, was not only flirting with the Church, but also, on occasion, co-operating with her―an attitude not due to change of heart on the part of the Republic, but to solid social and political considerations, which the Vatican cleverly exploited to be its own advantage. Of course, many other factors were at work in effecting this volte face, but the exertions of the Vatican to obtain control of the country from above, and thereby to check apostasy en masse, constituted the decisive factor.

Thus the Vatican, although fighting a losing battle against Socialism, Communism, and other hostile forces, held its own by cultivating the friendship of the Republic. This dual campaign became much accentuated during the twenty hears intervening between the two world wars. The first decade was characterized by the Church’s success in exploiting the Government over political and national issues. During the second decade the Church sponsored, fostered, and blessed various Fascist parties and organizations, whose goal was to establish a Fascist France, to crush the Socialists, and to give power to the Church.

This is not the place for an over-detailed dissection of France in the period intervening between the two world wars. It suffices to give some examples of the two methods by which the Church sought to acquire influence in that country; in the first decade by exerting political pressure on the weak side of French nationalism, and in the second decade by encouraging Fascist movements in conjunction with the reactionary section of French society.

After the Conference of Versailles had laid down the law for the post-war world, the Vatican began to gain influence in France. This was accomplished by playing on French nationalistic susceptibilities. The immediate occasion of this was the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France. This reincorporation was becoming a source of anxiety to the Republic, for it seemed that the returned province would not readily settle down under French rule. The reincorporation of Alsace-Lorraine in France was a matter of prestige, national pride, and sentiment.

But, and here enters the Vatican, Alsace-Lorraine was solidly Catholic. The Vatican, speaking through the French Hierarchy, pronounced that if “the French Government had shown more understanding towards the situation of the Catholic Church in the Republic, ” it would have “tried to exert its not inconsiderable influence upon Catholic Alsace-Lorraine for the establishment of a better understanding between the new Province and the Republic.” In short, the Vatican here followed its old policy, oft repeated through the centuries, which was once shrewdly characterized by Napoleon in his description which was once shrewdly characterized by Napoleon to his description of the clergy as “a spiritual gendarmerie.”

This policy can be summed up thus: if a given province whose population is Catholic, when newly annexed, becomes seditious, the Vatican invariably tries to strike a bargain with the annexing Power. The official biographer of Leo XIII frankly shows how the Church, under his role, followed this policy―with Great Britain regarding Ireland, with Germany regarding Poland in the nineteenth century, with Austria regarding the Croats, and in other instances.

Thus Alsace-Lorraine provided the Vatican with the desired opportunity. In 1919, very soon after the First World War, the Provinces began to stir dangerously against France and to confront the Republic with serious trouble. In addition, the new Provinces sent such a number of Catholic deputies to Parliament as France had not seen since 1880. The Vatican used this powerful weapon against the Republic without hesitation in furtherance of its political and religious interests. The two were able to reach an agreement.

In plain words, this was the bargain struck. The Vatican undertook to keep the Alsatian rebels in check by ordering the local Hierarchy and the Catholic organization to follow a certain course. In return the French Government was to cease its hostility to the Church, to resume diplomatic relations with the Vatican, and to grant any other privileges that might be possible. The deal was effected, and France, the least Catholic country in Europe, whose population was indifferent or hostile to the Church, whose statemen were mainly Agnostic, dropped the anti-clerical ardor of former times. The laws inimical to the Church were repealed, or, when abrogated, were not enforced, and the religious Orders which had been expelled, especially the Jesuits, returned.

That was not all. The Vatican insisted that the French Government should appoint to it an ambassador and should receive, in return, a nuncio in Paris. Thus it came about that the Republic, denounced for more than forty years by the Vatican as “a Government of Atheists, Jews and Freemasons” against which all good Catholics should rebel, appointed an ambassador to the Vatican and welcomed a Papal nuncio in Paris. It is significant that a French Minister―Cuval―visited the Vatican for the first time within the memory of living Frenchmen.

To complete the bargain the canonization of Joan of Arc was proclaimed. This was an astute move on the part of the Vatican, anxious to take full advantage of French patriotic sentiment in its pursuit of further religious gains. The Government, represented by its sceptical statesmen, took part in the religious ceremonies. The radical elements in France protested bitterly against this casting off of the Republican liberal spirit, and especially against the reception of the Papal nuncio. They raised a storm in Parliament, and the House was on the brink of accepting radical advice. But just at this juncture the Vatican instructed the Hierarchy in Alsace-Lorraine to impress upon the Alsatian Catholic deputies that their duty in the House was “to safeguard the paramount interest of the Church.” In other words, the Alsatian deputies threatened the Government with secession if diplomatic relations with the Vatican were to be interrupted. The Government was compelled to yield.

The second and most important reason for the Vatican’s disproportionate power in France was, once again, the menace of Bolshevism. The policy of appeasement in Alsace-Lorraine had already united the bishops with the bankers and industrialists, a combination highly advantageous to both parties. It should be remembered that Lorraine contains the second largest deposit of iron ore in the world, and Alsace had a great wealth of potash in addition to her agricultural prosperity.

The alliance between the Church and all the reactionary sections of French society became enormously intensified. On that union depended the issues of life and death for them, for in Bolshevism they perceived a mortal threat to their particular world. Nothing else could have intensified so profoundly the alliance already existing between Church and reaction, social, economic, and political. The famous utterance of Henri IV, “Paris is worth a Mass, ” became the watchword of an influential section of French anticlericalism, yoked to the Vatican through fear of Bolshevism. Many sections of liberal and secular Frenchmen at this juncture, urged by the fear of Communism, rejected Gambetta’s cry, “Clericalism is the enemy.” The cry which had resounded throughout France for forty hears was replaced by “the Church is now our ally.”

The bankers and big industrialists did not, of course, join hands with the Vatican in order to further Catholicism. Undoubtedly many of them had two goals in view. First came their private interest, and secondly the interests of the Church, so long as these were compatible with their own. The famous “two hundred families, ” who possessed the greatest wealth in France, were for the most part devout Catholics.

As years passed, and chiefly through this unholy alliance, an organized campaign against Bolshevism swept through France, waxing and waning periodically. This campaign was fought on two levels in French life. In the first place, popular and would-be popular movements appeared, one after another. In the second place, the higher political, financial, and social planes were involved behind the scenes; here the Vatican garnered its most notable successes.

Some ten years after the First World War―about 1930―these anti- Bolshevik organizations began to appear, growing rapidly bolder and bolder. At one time it seemed possible that they would start civil war and make a bid for power. These movements displayed definite characteristics. All were anti-Bolshevik and resolved to stamp out Socialism and Communism wherever found. They opposed the influence of Soviet Russia in the concert of nations. They were modelled on the classical Fascist and Nazi pattern, with similar insignia and slogans. They were armed formations, preaching violence and practising terrorism. They clamored for an immediate dictatorship. Their assumption of power would have been marked by the destruction of democracy and political liberty.

Last, but not least, both the leaders and the members were fervent Catholics. Nationalism and class interest inspired these movements, all of which were cemented by religion.

Such societies were innumerable. The majority of them had, in secret, large armaments of all kinds and were supplied with money through “secret” channels.

They began to march through the streets of Paris, breaking up Socialist and Communist meetings. They organized armed demonstrations and assaulted their opponents. They acted, in short, exactly as their earlier counterparts in Italy and Germany had done so successfully.

The most notorious and influential reactionary Fascist and semi-Fascist parties in France, before the outbreak of the Second World War, are here enumerated.

The Union Republique Demoncratique.―This party, backed by the wealthiest section of France, was the backbone of French Conservative opinion. Its main task was to defend the interests of capital and of industrial and agricultural “feudalism.” Its secondary task was to harass the Left-wing parties as far as possible and to fight the “Bolshevik dragon.” In 1936 it attempted to consolidate all Right-wing elements into a National Front in opposition to the Front Populaire.

It was pre-eminently the party of Big Business, and most of its members were privately or openly in sympathy with Nazism, much as were the reactionary forces in pre-Hitler Germany. The Union was essentially Catholic, and its goal, ranking next after the defence of capital, was the furtherance of the interests of the Catholic Church. It eagerly supported the idea that the Church should control education throughout the nation, and preached, in accordance with Catholic doctrine, the importance of the family and the undesirability of State interference in social matters. The Union embraced many important industrial, social, financial, political, and religious personalities.

The Action Francaise. ―The Action Francaise was a violently reactionary party which sought to destroy the Republic and to establish a Monarchy, with the help and blessing of the Catholic Church. It preached violence and resistance for many years, and its fanaticism and ultra-Catholicism often embarrassed the plans of the Vatican itself. The Vatican, on many occasions, tried to align the policy of the Action Francaise with its own policy and failed; hence the Pope was compelled to pronounce a ban on this party. The ban was pronounced in 1914, the Herriot Government was superseded. The Vatican was chiefly responsible for this supersession, and friendly relations were again established between State and Church. Accordingly, the ban was made public and the Royalist movement, led by Maurras and Daudet, began to decline. For years it had been attracting numerous priests and the Fascist element of young Frenchmen. This ban gave such grave offense to the French Hierarchy, who were supporting this movement, that a cardinal, Louis Billot, returned his red hat to the Pope. This was the first resignation of a cardinal for one hundred years.

The Action Francaise had a military organization, which often led to bloody riots, such as the riots of 1934. Here the Camelots du Roy played the leading role.

During the Front Populaire, the Action Francaise openly demanded the death of the Prime Minister, Blum. Actually an attempt on the Prime Minister’s life was made by a fervent Nationalist Catholic.

It also openly supported Fascist Italy in the Abyssinian War, Franco in the Spanish War, and the Axis Powers during the Munich crisis.

Another movement, closely connected with the Action Francaise, was the ultra-Catholic League d’Action Francaise, whose main objective was the destruction of the Republic. This was the oath of the members: “I pledge myself to fight against all Republican regimes. The Republican spirit favors religious influences hostile to traditional Catholicism.”

Another movement, modelled entirely on Nazi lines, was entitled the Jeunesse Patriote. This body enjoyed the support of the capitalists, who provided funds, and its Catholic and nationalist membership endowed it with prestige. Its members preached open violence to all opponents of themselves and of the Church, especially regarding the Communists as enemies. Bagarre, or street-fighting, was their chief method of procedure, and their vanguard consisted of fifty men, divided into three sections, known as the Groupes Mobiles.

The Soldarite Francaise was another Catholic party, founded by Francois Coty, of perfume and newspaper fame.

Le Croix de Feu was a movement recruited from the wealthy classes to oppose Parliament and democracy. Its members clamored for an authoritarian State forbidding freedom of political thought, of speech, and of the Press. From this body originated the violent and terrorist Fascist movement entitled Les Cagoulards.

These various movements and parties strove hard for power―but from various causes, without success. However, the realization of failure only inspired them to greater activity behind the scenes, and here their influence was great. As has been seen, these forces were closely allied with the Catholic Church, and from her some of them drew their support. The Vatican also, perceiving its failure in open political contest, concentrated its attention on the schemes which were in hand behind the facade of the Republic.

While France was torn by conflicting interests, Germany was advancing from one victory to another. An analysis of French politics at that period cannot here be attempted, but one or two points at that period cannot here be attempted, but one or two points of capital importance stand out from the background of those years. It is clear that the same classes sponsored Fascism and Nazism in France as had already done so in Germany and Italy; also that the Catholic Church again played an important part in encouraging such movements. It is clear, too, that the principle objective was the destruction of Socialism and Communism. Efforts to this end were not confined within the internal life of the nation, but formed a part of France’s foreign policy.

This hostility to Communism, when translated into political activity, displayed itself as a restless and active sabotaging of the Republic’s efforts to maintain a close alliance with Soviet Russia.

The reactionaries were not concerned only with harassing the policy of the Republic; they also pursued a policy of their own―the installation of Fascism in France. In the existing state in France they saw no hope of doing so, except by help from abroad. That help could only come from Nazi Germany. To this policy national pride and sentiment offered an apparently insurmountable obstacle.”Anything rather than a Red France” became their watchword. This determination was reinforced by the belief that if victory rewarded France’s entry into the war, the position of the Reds would be greatly strengthened, to the peril of the capitalists, the would-be Fascists, and the Catholic Church. The defeat of their country and the sacrifice of their national pride would have spelt their personal advantage through defeat of the Reds. This was the ultimate issue of their policy, as we shall see presently.

We have examined the reactionary political background in France in the decade preceding the Second World War. A vast population was indifferent or hostile to the Church. There was a vast Catholic machinery knitting all France, yet with no hold on the masses, and therefore working, as it were, in a vacuum. There was a persistent campaign, both above and below ground, against Bolshevism and Soviet Russia, and there were movements in imitation of Fascism and Nazism, largely inspired by the Catholic Church.

In close alliance with these agencies there were small but powerful sections of the country inspired by as deep a hatred for Bolshevism as was the Church. The nightmare pursued them that their social and financial world would disappear if Socialist and Communist principles were allowed to spread freely. They planned to put a check on Bolshevism, at home in the first place, and secondly abroad; hence their organization and financing of parties to establish Fascism in France as a counterblast to Communism.

These two powerful factors in France united to achieve their common aim of setting up a Fascist dictatorship and crushing the Bolshevik enemy; but they failed to accomplish what Mussolini had accomplished in Italy and Hitler in Germany. With mingled fear and hope they watched the spread of Atheism and Bolshevism and the birth of regimes which successfully, and one by one, crushed the Communist dragons. Both the Church and the reactionary classes in France, in fact, hailed with enthusiasm the dictatorship of De Rivera in Spain; then that of Mussolini and his alliance with the Vatican; then the dictatorship of Franco, and on many occasions even that of Hitler.

One particular section of those classes which were “obsessed by the fear of Communism” was the class of regular officers. This class was noted for its reactionary attitude to almost all issues and for its devotion to the Church. Many officers of high rank had been notorious for their hatred of Bolshevism, contempt of democracy, and advocacy of “strong forms of government, ” Petain, Weygand, and Giraud among them. We select only those three, as being destined to play such important roles in subsequent years.

These officers were devout Catholics and were deeply interested in the Church, not only as a religious institution, but also in the Vatican’s policy toward social and political matters. Many officers and politicians who followed closely the political moves of the Vatican, were deeply impressed by a particular encyclical, the Quadragesimo Anno, published in 1931. This encyclical, which we have frequently mentioned, advocated the setting up of a Corporate State as an antidote to Communism and Socialism. We have already seen what that meant. In plain words, it meant Fascism on the Italian model and that every Catholic was officially forbidden to embrace or to help Socialism.

Could any man doubt where his duty lay? As devout members of the Church, as loyal scions of a caste, as patriots who could only conceive of a France built on a time-honored pattern, Petain and others began to move. Very soon the effect of the encyclical on the political field, in France as in several other Catholic countries became visible. Of course, it was not the Pope’s words alone that set in motion the vast machinery of reactionary Fascism in France. Vast interests, which had little or no relation to the Church, were at work, but the cumulative power of the Church at this juncture gave a tremendous impetus to these forces. By 1934 armed bodies of the blossoming French Fascist Party were not only formed, but were rioting in the streets of Paris. We have already described the “Fiery Cross, ” the “Hooded Men, ” and similar societies, with their demand for a Corporate State, for the grant of privileges to the Church, and for Totalitarianism.

It was at this time that Petain, inspired by the words of the Pope and his own hatred of democracy and Bolshevism, decided to be active and not to “confine himself to mere words.” Not without ambition, he had been fuming for several years at his comparative obscurity. The forcible acquisition of power by Mussolini, Hitler, and others had fired him and his associates “with a new hope.” (Letters of Petain to a friend, September 30, 1933.)

Petain “collected about himself a small clique of political friends, ” leaders of the reactionary parties. As a first step in their programme they issued a pamphlet entitled We Want Petain. What was their plan? To abolish the revolutionary spirit which was threatening to destroy the country, the family, the Church, and all that had rendered France great.” Petain thought to repeat the feat of the youthful Bonaparte, who in 1797 had swept the last traces of the Revolution out of Paris with “a whiff of grapeshot.”

Petain and his friends did not stop at publishing the pamphlet; they made preparations for coming into power. Petain, in fact, “was closely involved in preparations for civil war, ” and he was intimately connected, very secretly, with the terroristic movements described above. While concerned with these activities, he “watched closely the progress of Nazism with great sympathy. ” With the passing of time, and the consolidation of Nazism, he began to fraternize with the German Nazis, and especially with Goering in Berlin, as also did Laval.

Several years before the outbreak of the Second World War, Petain had come to the conclusion that Fascism could not become a power in France by internal means alone. Here he was in agreement with all the other reactionary leaders, and together they began to look and to work abroad with the intention of introducing Fascism at the first opportune occasion.

Petain, with his friends, sought openings in this foreign field. He secured his appointment as Ambassador in Madrid, at a time when the Fascist and Nazi arms, the English and the French non-interventionalists, were busy in putting Fascist France in power.

Simultaneously, another influential Catholic politician, Laval, was approached by Petain. Together and in secret they began to work for their common goal. In Madrid Petain made contact with Hitler and the Vatican, authorities whom he could count on for help in his plans. He made contact, very secretly, with the Vatican through the intermediation of Franco and, above all, through the Papal representative in Spain. Contact with Hitler was made through the good offices of the German Ambassador in Madrid, Herr Von Stohrer.

While his plans were developing, Petain kept in close touch with Laval, who was working in France to the same ends, in alliance with powerful military, financial, and industrial magnates.

What were these plans? The general ground plan was very simple―”the creation of favorable ground for the establishment of Fascism in France, which would lead to European bloc of Totalitarians all over the Continent. The success of this depends entirely on the sabotaging of all efforts to cooperate in, or support in any form, Bolshevism at home and especially abroad.” (Letter of Fascist Ambassador in Madrid to Mussolini, March 29, 1939.) In other words, Soviet Russia’s political influence with various European States, particularly Czechoslovakia and France, had to be boycotted.

Hitler, by “supporting” Petain and all other Fascist groups in France, would have given them the same assistance in “attaining power” as he had already given to Franco in Spain. He would also have come to their aid in the international field if serious complications had arisen. In the event of European war, “Petain and his friends would have done all in their power to prevent France from entering with those who would oppose German aspirations.” One of their chief tasks, during this last period, was to disrupt the alliance with the Bolshevik Russia. In regard to the Czech problem, this had already been successfully done. If war had broken out (at the time of the Munich crisis), and Petain and his associates had been unable to prevent the involvement of France, they would have secured that “the might of armed France should not be employed against the Third Reich.”

Pope Pius XI and his Secretary of State had given their benediction to the entire project. The fear of another great war was their only objection. Pacelli made it known to Hitler that the Vatican would prefer “the settling of national and international problems without the risk of loosing another great war on the world.” He asked Hitler to find means to help “France in establishing a sane and friendly Government which would co-operate with Germany in the rebuilding of a Christian Europe.” (Cardinal Seredi, April 6, 1940.) The main protagonists throughout this scheming were the Papal delegate in Spain, the German Ambassador to Spain, General Franco, Petain, and in France, Laval.

The activities of Petain and his friends, and the contacts with the Vatican and with Hitler, leaked through to the ears of the French Government. Most of the Petain activities were reported in writing to the French Premier, Daladier. To the amazement of those reporting these proceedings, Daldier stated that he was aware of what was going on but “he could do nothing.”

The war broke out, and Petain with his confederates continued their plotting more than ever. In the chapter dealing with Germany we have related the discussions between the Vatican and Hitler concerning France. The Vatican was in close touch with Petain and his friends, and the assurance which the Pope was able to convey to Hitler concerning France was derived from them. Petain, on the other hand, relied on information received from Herr von Stohrer, and especially the Papal delegate, that Germany would prove dependable towards him. He was still uncertain whether “suffering defeat in the military field” was not too big a price to pay for Germany’s support.

The activities of Petain and another pious general, Weygand, together with the activities of Laval and other confederates, increased a hundredfold at the entry of France into the war. For years Petain and others had been contriving the promotion to key positions, in the Army, of officers certain to be useful to them at the critical moment. Almost all these officers were Catholics, inspired by the same hatred for democracy and the Republic as that felt by the veteran Marechal; unobtrusively their promotion to key positions had continued.

Now that France had entered into the war, Petain desired to complete the building of his plan on the foundations so long and so successfully in preparation. In his pursuit of a closer and more frequent contact with those sections which shared his designs, he returned to Paris. Here he canvassed members of the Government, asking them to obtain a sanction for him to divide his time and activities. Half his time he proposed to spend in Madrid (where he had international contacts) and half in France (to maintain contact with his agents, charged with the execution of his military and political plans).

This request was flatly refused: the old Marechal had already incurred the suspicion of the Premier and of other politicians. Petain became embittered, and in a moment of anger he uttered a phrase which betrayed, more than anything else, what was going on behind the scenes. He used the pregnant words: “They will need me in the second fortnight in May.”

In the second fortnight of May Germany invaded France. Petain, the Papal Secretary of State, and Hitler, had all their plans ready and knew the date on which Nazi German would launch her offensive in the West. (See Ci-devant 1941, by the French Minister, Anatole De Monzie.)