For "technical" reasons, said the Vatican's Osservatore Romano last week, the Holy See has withdrawn diplomatic privileges from the envoys of the Polish and Lithuanian pre-war governments. Henceforth, the dean of the Vatican diplomatic corps, Casimir Papee, Ambassador from the Polish government in exile, and Stanislaus Girdvainis. minister from Lithuania before Russia annexed that country in 1940, will probably serve as chargés d'affaires. But no matter how technical the reasons, insiders in Rome buzzed with speculation that the move signaled a new phase of diplomatic relations between Vatican and Kremlin.
When the envoys accredited to the Holy See were invited by diplomatic custom to present their credentials to the new Pope, Papée and Girdvainis received no invitations. Vatican Secretary of State Domenico Tardini explained that the omissions were made because the two diplomats represented "phantom" governments that are no longer recognized by other countries accredited to the Holy See. That statement itself was enough for old Vatican hands to sense a new atmosphere; under Pius XII, who made a point of keeping the Polish and Lithuanian envoys as anti-Communist symbols, there had not been any reference to phantoms.
The change is said to have been brought about at least partly by Poland's Cardinal Wyszynski during his recently-completed 22-month visit to Rome. As the church's highest-ranking prelate who deals with Communism at first hand, Wyszynski is said to have made this case to Pope John and Cardinal Tardini: Polish Premier Gomulka is increasingly dependent on Poland's Catholics (82.4% of the population) to keep him at least partly independent of Moscow's smothering embrace, and the situation might be used to pry from Gomulka some additional concessions to Polish Catholics. But one of Wyszynski's embarrassments in such maneuvers was recognition of the exiled Polish representatives by the Vatican.
The new Vatican attitude, as one diplomat put it, "could theoretically lead to a better atmosphere between the church and Communism. The first move, though, must come from the Communists." The church's price is likely to be high, involving vastly increased religious and educational freedom in Communist countries.