THE VATICAN: Sheep Kill Sheep

One of the saddest hearts in all of Europe last week was that of Pope Pius XII. He had been hailed at his election as a shrewd diplomat who would be an authoritative moral policeman among Europe’s thugs. He succeeded a man who had learned early in life (in sorry Poland, ironically, where he was Papal Nuncio just after World War I) to fight against extreme ideologies, and who late in life had waged that fight—particularly against Naziism—with superhuman strength. “No good Catholic” Pius XI had said “can be a Socialist”—and before he died he made clear especially not a National Socialist.

After the Nazi-Communist pact had brought together the Church’s two bitterest enemies, diplomatic activity in the Vatican became more intense than ever. It kept right on after war came. Pius XII recalled his vacationing Secretary of State, Luigi Cardinal Maglione. Together they composed last minute appeals, conferred with ambassadors to the Holy See.

What made Pius XII particularly sad was the thought of his sheep fighting each other: 37,900,000 German Catholics (21,000,000 of 67,000,000 pre-Hitler Germans, plus 6,100,000 Austrian souls, plus 10,800,000 in Czecho-Slovakia) pitted against 23,000,000 devout Poles—just about his stanchest followers anywhere.

The Pope’s ministrations, like those of all strivers for peace, had failed. But in one State they were a factor in the final decision. The Vatican newspaper printed last week an unprecedented report. Cardinal Maglione had a long, formal talk with an official not accredited to the Church— the private chaplain of Vittorio Emmanuele III, King and Emperor of Italy. Italy stayed out.