The Press: Observer Silenced

Rome has only two afternoon newspapers: the Fascist Giornale d’Italia and the Catholic Osservatore Romano, semiofficial organ of the Holy See. When Germany invaded Poland last September, Osservatore Romano’s circulation jumped from 40,000 to 130,000 during the Polish campaign, because it was the only paper in which Italians could read news from both sides. Later, Editor Count Giuseppe Dalla Torre decided to limit his paper’s circulation rather than risk making trouble (TIME. April 29).

Fascist Party members were warned not to be seen in public reading the Vatican paper. Fascist editors, led by Roberto Farinacci, onetime Party secretary and Italy’s No. 1 Jew-baiter, bitterly attacked the Vatican press. Cried Farinacci in his Cremona Regime Fasdsta: “Since September . . . Osservatore and the Holy See have had a common cause with the Allies.” Last fortnight, when German troops suddenly moved into Holland and Belgium, Pope Pius XII sent messages of sympathy to Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands, King Leopold of the Belgians; and Osservatore Romano, in a burst of indignation, let itself go again. That day Editor Dalla Torre printed 150,000 copies, speeded up the Vatican’s little press until it almost shook apart.

At last Fascist police went into action. All street sales of Osservatore Romano outside the Vatican were prohibited. In Vatican City a newsstand was set up, guarded by agents of the Holy See. Guards were stationed inside the Santa Anna Gate, along the dead-end street which leads to the Osservatore Romano office. Last week’s print order dropped to 35,000 copies, and half of these were stacked in the plant, undelivered.

Most of Osservatore Romano’s war news had been printed in a column called Acta Diurna, in which squat, dark, astute Professor Guido Gonella, with a strong pro-Ally slant, digested daily communiques from London, Paris, Berlin. Editor Dalla Torre dropped Professor Gonella’s column. Without Acta Diurna, Osservatore Romano came out as usual for subscribers, but the last free paper in Italy had been bottled up, almost as good as suppressed.