POSTSCRIPT

As will have been seen, I wrote immediately after the coronation of John XXIII:”The policy of the Holy See will not be deeply affected, since its objectives will remain the same.”

Two months later, on 22 December 1958, the new Pope was expressly confirming the continuity of the Vatican’s policy, in his “Letter to the Bishops of Germany”,”So far as We are concerned. We are not departing from the example set us by Our predecessor with regard to the highly estimable German nation….”

It has been possible to observe, since, that these were no idle words—and to see just which elements of SS Germany John XXIII regards with particular favour. Indeed, it is not without amazement that I read, in La Croix of 30 October 1959, this somewhat belated news item:

“The former Vice-Chancellor of the Reich, Franz von Papen, was nominated Privy Chamberlain to His Holiness John XXIII on 24 July 1959. . . . Mr. von Papen was condemned to eight years’ hard labour by the Tribunal for his collaboration with Nazism. . . .”

In fact, this was not a nomination but a confirmation, Franz van Papen having already been a”cape and rapier”Privy Chamberlain to His Holiness Pius XI—a detail which the clerical organ prefers not to recall.

Thus the new Sovereign PontifF has deliberately chosen, to fulfil alongside him these so-called”honorary”functions, the former German spy and saboteur of the first world war. This Catholic Rhinelander who, in collusion with the Nuncio Pacelli, future Pius XII, brought Hitler to power and became Vice-Chancellor. This principal architect of the Anschluss—the man who”knew too much”and who, thanks to the intervention of Pius XII, escaped from the gallows of Nuremberg. This old friend of the wonderful days of Ankara, hotbed of intrigues and espionage during the second world war, where John XXIII, then Apostolic Vicar, and the highly respected German”diplomat”had every opportunity to become thoroughly acquainted—and therefore to appreciate each other.

To stress his faithfulness to the”example set by his predecessor”, His Holiness could hardly have found a better way of proclaiming before the entire world the value which he sets on the 57 millions who died by the Nazi regime.

But did the Holy Father consider this provocative act insufficiently explicit, and feel that it would be better to express his thought more clearly? We may surely conclude so, since this first step was shortly followed by another, by no means less”illuminating”: on 14 December 1959, His Holiness John XXIII created eight new cardinals, among whom were—as if by chance—the Jesuit Reverend Father Bea, German Confessor to Plus XII.

As a special favour, this good man obtained the red hat, the Roman Church’s next highest distinction after the tiara, without having to scale the intermediary grades of the canonry or the episcopate.

The lesson was clear but the course of events was to provide the Holy See with the opportunity of proclaiming even more loudly to the world the immutable continuity of the Vatican’s policy.

The announcement of a”summit”conference between East and West, fixed for 16 May 1960, could not but excite the wrath of the ecclesiastical strategists. If the two opposed blocs should finally succeed in settling their differences, if a real peace were to succeed the armed peace, the”cold war”which had been so well maintained, what would become of the Vatican? It would mean the end of its political power, of its prestige, of the”moral”influence upon which it trades so well. Who would then trouble to avoid its enmity or to avail itself of its support?

Finally, if such an agreement were to materialize, would it not condemn the immense losses suffered by the Roman Church in central Europe, those Polish, Hungarian and Czechoslovak serfs, whom she lost by her own fault in madly supporting the NaziFascist adventure? Did not”The Silent Church”, the theme so expertly conducted, run the risk of remaining voiceless for ever?

Aware of this danger, the Holy See violently manifested its opposition to these peace negotiations, on the very day that Mr. Gronchi, President of the Italian Republic, was to fly to Moscow. Prevented by an opportune attack of influenza, he did not in fact leave—but the impious plan to enter into conversations with the Soviet “atheists” was none the less publicly stigmatized from the height of the pulpit of Santa Maria Maggiore, on 7 January 1960, during a service dedicated to the famous “Silent Church”.

Entrusted with this operation, one of the highest dignitaries of the Curia, Cardinal Ottaviani, Secretary to the Holy Office, fulminated a half-curse upon the “politicians” guilty of “shaking hands” with the enemies of God. The fiery cardinal described these politicans as “stunned by terror”. Moreover, all Christians in general found themselves severely reprimanded for not having cast aside in horror the idea of such an impious peace.

Thus the Vatican threw off its mask and openly recommended the continuance of the cold war—pending the hot one.

A fortnight after the explosion of this oratorical bomb, the Holy Father was receiving with particular solicitude Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, his Privy Chamberlain, who had come to Rome in an attempt to draw the Italian Government into the camp opposing the deteate. An unofficial communique was spreading urbi et orbi the unambiguous words addressed to the Pontiff by the Chancellor-Chamberlain, claiming for Germany—as Hitler had previously done —the role of “Keeper of the West” which God had supposedly given it.

Thus even the mortal peril of an atomic war is powerless to deter the Vatican from its criminal bellicism.

It is up to you, the peoples, you who have been abused for so long, to say whether or not you are weary of paying for this mad dream with your blood.

THE END

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