Two statesmen talked peace at Hyde Park in the autumn of 1936. One was gaunt, dark-eyed Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli. Papal Secretary of State. The other was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Last year Cardinal Pacelli became Pope Pius XII. Last Christmas President Roosevelt, striving to halt World War II, recalled their talk of peace on earth. To the Pope he wrote: "In their hearts men decline to accept for long the law of destruction forced upon them by wielders of brute force. Always they seek . . . to find again the faith without which the welfare of nations and the peace of the world cannot be rebuilt." To the Vatican as his special envoy he sent Steelman Myron C. Taylor. At that time much hope was built on the Vatican lining up on the side of the democracies. But World War II spread further. Last week the Vatican appeared to be working out its own policy.
On Both Sides. Good Catholics put patriotism next to religion. Because the Catholic Church is as widespread as its name implies, wars often line up one nation's Catholics against another's. Typical last week was Arthur Cardinal Kinsley, Catholic leader in Britain. His Eminence announced that he would give every British Catholic soldier, sailor and aviator (2,250,000 in all) a personally blessed crucifix of bakelite (to save metal) with the crucified figure "sunk into the cross so that it can't catch in the wearer's uniform." Then Cardinal Kinsley went on the air to preach a holy war against the Nazis.
To Britain's warring millions he cried: "You are on the side of the angels in the struggle against the pride of rebellious Lucifer."
Equally typical was the Italian Bishop of Terracina, who in a vibrant pastoral letter to his flock declared: "We ought most fervently to address our prayers to the God of Hosts that he may deign to bless the officers and soldiers and crown their sacrifice and heroism with complete victory. We should particularly pray for the return of the holy places and especially the Cenacle and the Holy Sepulchre, which will receive the veneration due to them only when the flag of Catholic and Fascist Italy flies above them."
Pope & Caesar. To the Catholic Church such declarations are merely the passing contradictions of mundane affairs. In world affairs the policy of the Vatican has long been guided by two main principles:
1) ability to find a modus vivendi with every form of government it has ever encountered (exception: Communism);
2) never to become identified with any one government, or type of government. The projection of this policy under recent conditions has led the Vatican into steps not foreseen by the democracies.
To French bishops Pope Pius XII fortnight ago sent a letter, in which he spoke to quasi-fascist France as kindly as he did to the Polish hierarchy and faithful last autumn. The Pope predicted that God would "bring about reawakening of the entire nation." Last week the Vatican let it be known that negotiations for a new concordat were "progressing satisfactorily" with Germany, thanks to Nazi approval of the patriotic loyalty of German Catholics since World War II began.