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Vatican negotiations with some of these Communist countries, if they could be started at all, could be interminable. Hungarian negotiations began under Pope John XXIII and are not yet concluded. The difficulty of winning back religious liberties once they are lost could prompt the new Pontiff to think long and carefully before reaching any modus vivendi with Eurocommunism in any of its national guises. At the same time, Wojtyla is living proof that a healthy church can survive under Communism.
Italy will of course be the main testing ground, and the Polish Pope brings to Italian politics a new uncertainty, since he has no connections with any political leaders. That fact may accelerate the recent and healthy trend among Christian Democrats to compete as a normal political party.
Italian Communists hope to convince the new Pope that there is a clear distinction between their Eurocommunism and the Communism in Eastern Europe. The effort, concedes one Party editor, "may push us to emphasize more and more sharply our difference from Soviet and East European Communists." In any case, the editor acknowledges, "when this Pope speaks about Communism he will do it with much more authority than past Pontiffs. People will believe his words more than they believed theirs." After three decades of jousting with Communism, John Paul II could hardly expect less.