(See front cover)
Eugenic Cardinal Pacelli, Secretary of State to His Holiness the Pope, arranged last week to telephone a Christmas greeting from the Pope to the U. S., via the Manhattan bureau of the United Press. Delighted U. P. officials made plans to be at their offices before breakfast, for Cardinal Pacelli's plan was to ring up about lunch time in Rome.
At the last moment came a hitch. The Pope wanted also to issue a Christmas message to all his cardinals. This was timed for Christmas Eve. The publicity given a message to the U. S. might detract from the effect of the message to the cardinals.
Nonetheless, so much agitation over international publicity, and such matter-of-fact consideration of a transatlantic telephone call, were significant. Pope Pius XI is enlisting all things modern to the advancement of his Church throughout the earth. Last week he ordered three helicopters for his messenger service.
Sway. When the College of Cardinals locked themselves up in the Hall of the Conclave to elect the 261st Pope, there was no medieval bickering and dickering for the office. All were agreed that the next Pope must be capable of vigorous action, a doer as well as a thinker, an executive as well as a mystic. The influence of the Church over the earth must be extended, its sway reestablished. The time. 1922, was propitious for both. Religions gain when peoples are spiritually disorganized and muddled, as they were just after the War and still are.
The cardinals might have chosen any Catholic male over 30 for Pope. But of course they would not. The late debonair Raphael Cardinal Merry del Val was seriously discussed as the Able Man. So too were a few others. But the preponderant choice after seven ballots, as everyone now knows, was Achille Ambrogio Damiano Ratti, Cardinal and Archbishop of Milan.
As Pope Pius XI he very soon appropriated large sums to the Congregation for the Propagation of Faith (missionary propaganda) and spurred it to its work among the peoples. He, his Secretary of State, his legates and his nuncios dealt with rulers. His outstanding work in this respect was his settlement of the Roman Question by the Lateran Treaties of 1929, and the establishment of Vatican City as an independent sovereignty.
Some other developments of the past nine years which Pius XI can view with satisfaction:
Austria has a dominant Catholic party, directed by a church dignitary, Monsignor Ignaz Seipel.
Hungary is more than ever expecting the return of its devout "Emperor"' Otto.
When Tsar Boris of Bulgaria married Princess Giovanna of Italy this autumn he agreed to the usual stipulation that all his children be brought up as Roman Catholics.
Third largest party in Germany, the Centrist, is Catholic.
In China natives have been made bishops, a far-reaching method of strengthening the church anywhere. The Pope's policy is to have a native clergy in all regions.
Australia had its invigorating Eucharistic congress two years ago. Australia's Prime Minister James Henry Scullin visited the Pope last fortnight.
A worldwide crusade of prayer for conversion of Latin American Indians began, by the Pope's orders, the end of last month.