ITALY-PAPAL STATE: Man In Black

Out of the Vatican, across the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele, into the Palazzo Venezia, back to the Vatican hurried a long-skirted Jesuit father last week. As he padded silently by, Vatican attendants and those who watch over Premier Mussolini’s household whispered and nodded wisely to each other. “It’s the man in black,” they said. They further identified him as Father Tacchi-Venturi, a little-known priest without rank or official authority but a trusted confidant of both Pope Pius XI and Il Duce. Six years ago, some of them remembered, he had been attacked in his study, stabbed in the back. Two years later another priest who looked like him was assassinated. Devious and romantic. Father Tacchi-Venturi has busied himself with the highest diplomacy for the past two months. Last week his aims seemed to be nearly accomplished. A new accord was about to be reached between Italy and the Papal State to close the breach which occurred last May (TIME, June 8 et seq.).

Upshot of Father Tacchi-Venturi’s spadework was a conference between Count Cesare de Vecchi, Italian Ambassador to the Holy See, Eugenic Cardinal Pacelli, Papal Secretary of State. After Count de Vecchi left, the Pope, Cardinal Pacelli and Father Tacchi-Venturi were closeted until late in the afternoon. Later His Holiness said: “We do not know whether a solution can be reached in a short or long time, but it certainly will be reached when the Lord wishes—that is to say, at the moment most suitable for the good of souls.”

If an agreement is reached, observers thought it would be a compromise along these lines: 1) The Government would permit the reopening of the 15,000 Catholic Action clubs* if the Vatican would guarantee that the organizations would not meddle in politics. Non-religious activities of the Catholic Action youth clubs would be handled through the Balilla, young Fascist organization. 2) The Church would allow Balilla units to be established in Church schools, if the State allows Catholic chaplains to conduct religious instruction within the Balilla. 2) The Government would pay for damages to Church property incurred during recent demonstrations.

¶ From the Vatican last week came a ruling that in Italy a civil marriage, even though followed by a religious ceremony, would henceforth be known as a “public sin.” In republican France, where a civil marriage ceremony is obligatory, such “public sinning” would presumably be overlooked.

*Last week, unofficially, all Catholic Action clubs save those at Rome reopened.