Conflict With Church Would Follow POPE CONDEMNS ALL RAC1ALISMS

Special Warning To All Catholics In Rome
THE POSSIBILITY OF ANOTHER CONFLICT BREAKING OUT BETWEEN THE HOLY SEE AND THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT MUST BE TREATED WITH GREAT CAUTION, ACCORDING TO SEMIOFFICIAL CIRCLES IN ROME.
It is stressed that a great deal depends on the unknown factors of German pressure and Italian subservience to such pressure.
IN DEFIANCE OF MUSSOLINI'S STATEMENTS THREE YEARS AGO TREMENDOUS EFFORTS ARE BEING MADE TO TURN THE ROME-BERL1N POLITICAL AXIS INTO AN IDEOLOGICAL ONE.
The core of the matter from the Catholic point of view is the increasingly emphatic attitude of the Church against racialism.
Last Friday the Pope pointedly contrasted the Spirit of Catholic Action with the " detestable spirit of separatism and exaggerated nationalism which finished by being less than human."
IT IS SIGNIFICANT THAT THE OCCASION OF THESE WORDS OF THE POPE WAS A RELIGIOUS EXHORTATION TO THE ECCLESIASTICAL ASSISTANTS OF ITALIAN CATHOLIC ACTION.
Whether there is a conflict depends entirely on Mussolini, writes our Rome Correspondent. Rarely does the Church condemn mere abstract or theoretic, political and social heresies. She generally waits until the error is incorporated into concrete action and threatens to become a living thing. Such has bccn the experience in past years of Communism, Socialism, and Secularist Liberalism.
It is thought that Mussolini is too much a statesman not to recognise that he would be taking a fatal tstep if he were openly to defy the Pope. But if such a thing happens there is not a flicker of doubt that the Pope will assume the role of " Defender of Catholic Italy."
The gravity of the situation is proved by the Ecclesiastical warning issued in a Bulletin distributed in all Roman parishes. The warning is as follows: " The Church desires all the faithful to be informed of the new kind of idolatry threatening to bring Christian Europe to the extreme limits of apostasy and barbarism. In Christian eyes Man has a value, not only because he is big or fair, strong or beautiful, but because of the nobility of his soul.
" The new religion of blood can only sow hatred, war and persecution."
Editorial Comment—Page 8.
PIUS XI—DEFENDER OF ITALY
From Our Own Correspondent Rowe
Speaking on Friday to some 150 Ecclesiastical Assistants of the Youth section of Catholic Action—an occasion of special importance and solemnity in the mind of the Pope of Catholic Action—the Holy Father made use of most moving words about his own love for those who were assisting in this great work.
C.A. and the "New Doctrine"
At the end of his long speech he boldly contrasted the spirit of Catholic Action with the spirit of the new doctrines " which certain people want."
" One might truly say that this explicit article of the Creed ' I Believe in the Catholic Church' has been forgotten," the Holy Father stated. "Catholic 'means universal nor racist. nor nationalist nor separatist. but, Catholic—and this should be the spirit of Catholic Action, for it is the spirit that matters. and if there is anything worse than any one formula or other of racialism or nationalism, it is the spirit dictating them all.
" We must in fact say that there is something particularly detestable. and it is the spirit of separatism. of exaggerated nationalism which, precisely because it is flat Christian, ends by not even being human."
Referring to What?
How far do these plain words refer to the attempt being made to introduce racialism into Italy? It is impossible not to treat them as a warning to Italian Catholics. a warning especially issued to spiritually militant Catholic Action, already once the subject of a conflict between the Holy See and Italy.
But the apparent possibility of a fresh conflict between the Holy See and the Italian Government over Racialism should be treated with extreme caution. To that part of the British Press that has begun to write it up, the wish would seem to be father to the thought.
Your correspondent declines to believe that Signor Mussolini will mark the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Lateran Treaties with a first class conflict with the Vatican.
Not only would it be in complete contradiction with the sentiments he expressed to the priests assembled at the Palazzo Venezia for the prize-giving in connection with the " Battle of the Grain," but it would be a blunder of such obvious enormity that it is grossly underestimating Mussolini's statesmanship to suggest its possibility.
At the same time one cannot deny that customary mouthpieces of the Duce are using language unheard of in Italy until recently. Thus Signor Gayda states that the" problem of race must in future leave the domain of doctrine and become a political problem and one of immense, immediate and concrete importance."
" Resolute and Intransigeant "
He admits that the Italian race should not isolate itself from the solidarity of other races and nations, but Italy " intends to recognise herself, individualise herself and affirm herself with a resolute and intransigeant autarchy."
Further, an article in the Popolo
attributed to Mussolini, claims that the Italian race is Aryan, and . . " without a clear racialist awareness Empires are lost. . ."
These are—to say the least—alarming echoes of the campaign of Starace, Farinacci and others to introduce racialism and anti-Semitism into a Catholic country.
The fact that Italy entertained such cordial relations with the Holy See, and that the Church enjoyed such privileges in Italy, gained world-wide Catholic sympathy for Italy during the Abyssinian War.
The Catholic vote in the U.S.A. and England has been a decisive factor in forming the attitude of the British and American Governments to General Franco.
A Blunder
In view of the extremely cordial VaticanFrench relations at the moment, for Mussolini to throw over the immense value of general Catholic sympathy and invite Catholic hostility would be a serious tactical mistake at this critical moment in Italian foreign affairs.
But internally the situation would be far more serious. In the first place, owing to the ordinary Italian's dislike of Hitler in particular and of the Germans in general, the Papal resistance to the penetration of German Nazi ideas into Italy has suddenly made Pius XI considered as Defensor Italica, against the new barbarian invasion.
Secondly, the Church in Italy is in a much stronger position now than in 1931. at the time of the Catholic Action crisis. The influence of the Cardinal Archbishops of Turin, Florence and Milan is considerable and, knowing the immense prestige of the latter in Milan, it seems inconceivable that Mussolini would risk alienating this useful friend of the regime.
The Unknown Factor
Your correspondent is basing his view on the supposition that Mussolini will act reasonably and in the interests of Italy. The unknown factor is the extent of German pressure and the extent of Italian subservience.
Should, though. Mussolini challenge the Pope on a clear issue where the Pope, in the minds of the ordinary Italians, was defending the true interests of Italy against a new barbarian invasion, Pius XI and not Mussolini would become regarded as the real leader and defender of Italy.
Italo-German Friendship—page 9