The Vatican in World Politics by Avro Manhattan

20 Conclusion

Thus we have come to the end of our survey dealing with the role played by the Vatican in the modern world. We have examined almost half a century of its influence on all major nations, the part it played before and during the two world wars which have shaken mankind within the brief period of three decades, and its contribution to the rise and establishment of Fascism. No one will lightly dismiss the responsibility which the Vatican must bear for the impasse in which the nations have come to find themselves.

Enormous forces extraneous to religion in general and to Catholicism in particular have been the main promoters of the gigantic economic, social and political earthquakes which have shaken the first half of the twentieth century; yet the part played by the Vatican in most, if not in all, of them will make it a difficult task to acquit the Catholic Church of the heavy censure that history will pass upon it.

The survey just made, although incomplete, has made it abundantly clear that the Catholic Church has steered the wheel of contemporary history often and decisively.

Far from diminishing, the influence of the Catholic Church is expanding with increasing rapidity. It is moulding the course of local, national, and international events in such wise as to facilitate the attainment of its main goal-dominion throughout the world. If this main goal were limited to the purely religious sphere, it would still be objectionable on moral and practical grounds. But unfortunately the Catholic Church’s aspirations knows no such limit. We have already seen that the Church does not remain within its own domain; its fundamental claim of being the only bearer of truth of necessity forces it to trespass into ethical, social, cultural, economic and political spheres. Its assertion that it cannot be bound by any law enacted by men when in the exercise of its mission makes it act as it deems most suitable for its purpose, using whatever will help oppose, fight, or destroy ideologies or systems in conflict with Catholic tenets.

While other religions, or even Christian denominations, either through the loss of spiritual aggressiveness or owing to effective measures devised by the State, have abated their zeal, the Catholic Church continues to assert its claim with undiminished vigor and an inexhaustible passion for conquest. It will stop at nothing to achieve its goal. To expect the Catholic Church to forego meddling in social and political affairs is to expect such a profound change in its inner structure as would alter Catholicism entirely. As in past centuries, so now and in the future the Catholic Church will continue relentlessly to employ its canning, energy, and skill in hampering, so far as lies in its power, the progressive forces of contemporary society.

For the spirit that moves the Catholic Church makes it a ruthless and persistent enemy of our century and of all that individuals and nations are laboring and sweating to attain. History has shown that whenever Catholicism transforms its religious formulae into social and political ones it invariably endeavors to keep the status quo, or, indeed, to set back the clock, allying itself with all the forces whose object is similar to its own―i. e. the maintenance of a state of affairs which is no longer consonant with the needs of our changing times.

The creation of new powerful Catholic parties on the ruins of the various Authoritarian regimes; the Church’s alliance with certain strata in Europe, in the Americas, in Asia, and, indeed, everywhere; its successful siding with the most powerful nation, the United States of America; its stirring up of the troubled waters of world politics against Socialism and countries that have adopted it as their political system; its global crusade against Communism and Soviet Russia; its thundering against an ideology which, no matter all the crimes committed in its name, yet is stirring the hearts of the masses all over the planet-all this proves that the Catholic Church is intruding in the affairs of bodies politic with the same energy, boldness, cunning and determination as it, did in the period between the two world wars.

The Catholic Church is not easily deterred by defeats, setbacks, or dismal failures such as would break other, less majestic, institutions. Like the phoenix, it rises after each defeat stronger and more alive than before. Governments may come and go, but the Catholic Church continues to stand more challenging than ever. We have just seen how, having lost its mightiest secular ally in totalitarian Europe, it has reconstituted its forces. Within a few years it has become the spiritual associate of the United States of America in her crusade against Communist ideology and its embodiment, the U. S. S. R. The Church’s conquests on the American Continents have more than compensated it for what it has lost in the Old World, and the alliances it is making there are giving it a far wider influence upon the affairs of the globe than it ever had when supported by the ancient dynasties of the dictators of modern Europe.

Notwithstanding the tremendous increase of its enemies, the Catholic Church continues undeterred in its mission. Indeed, its resolution to expand has become more intransigent than ever; its priests, its bishops, and many of its laymen are striving with the zeal of crusaders to expand its dominion in all corners of the Earth; no section or stratum of modern society escapes its attention, no nation or country is without its Hierarchy or some of its members.

Unlike America and Soviet Russia with their political dependencies, the Catholic Church has neither standing armies nor atom bombs. It needs neither because it is the possessor of a weapon which during twenty centuries has served it not only to survive, but to win and conquer. Its strength lies in a passionate belief in its mission to convert and ultimately to rule all the nations of the world.

This spiritual strength is buttressed by an organization that is unsurpassed and that has made the Catholic Church a power of the first magnitude.

Its diplomats are ushered into almost every Foreign Office in the world; its press and its charitable, social, and political institutions stand side by side with the most up-to-date newspapers, sports and cultural dubs and social welfare centres in America and Europe; its. Catholic Parties are competing with powerful political movements in the major countries of the European continent; its ruler, the Pope, although a religious leader, has over fifty accredited ambassadors at his residence, and his words, obeyed by an army of 400 million, are considered by the leaders of all parties and governments and may have more far-reaching consequences than the utterances of heads of States, the resolutions passed at International Congresses, or the motions propounded by World Councils set up to ensure global peace.

Being the relentless institution that it is, the Catholic Church will not rest. As we have pointed out, to attain its goals it win continue the patient process of machination and counter-machination. It will employ artfulness, daring, diplomacy, religion, intrigue and all the armory of great nations bent on expanding their dominion abroad.

It is fully to be expected that instead of helping to avert a third world catastrophe, the Catholic Church, by continuing to align itself with unenlightened forces, will greatly contribute to the widening of the gap already separating two great portions of the world. But while so doing, the Catholic Church should keep in mind that it is endangering not only the lives of countless millions, but also its own existence. A third world war, unlike the wars of the recent past, would spell irremediable destruction not only of entire peoples, but also of ancient institutions, among which the Catholic Church would certainly be one of the main sufferers.

Millions of thinking people are today striving to build a world in which war is outlawed. New and living forces are on the march. Because the Catholic Church has seen small countries grow into mighty empires and then tumble, because it has beheld countless rulers rise and fall, ideologies come and go, let it not entertain vain illusions that it will also see the passing of the progressive forces which are now sweeping the globe.

The atomic bombs which in a few seconds wiped Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the face of the earth and brought Japan to her knees should be a warning to all those forces dealing with the future of mankind, that the methods of uncompromising principles of past ages are for ever out-of-date. Unless new horizons are opened, new methods devised, and a new spirit encouraged, economic systems, social doctrines, and Political regimes, as well as religious institutions, will inevitably bring upon themselves and all mankind total and final annihilation. The Catholic Church would be no exception, and, like all other world-wide institutions, it should take heed of the warning and, by keeping step with the spirit of the twentieth century, try to follow a new road.

About the Author

Baron Avro Manhattan was born April 6, 1914, in Milan, Italy, of American and Swiss/Dutch parents. He was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris and the London School of Economics. He was jailed in Italy for refusing to serve in the Fascist dictator Mussolini’s army.

Of his more than 20 books include the best-selling The Vatican in World Politics, was a best- seller translated into most major languages including Chinese and Russian.