Page 1, 2nd September 1955

2nd September 1955

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Page 1, 2nd September 1955 — Vatican paper warns Christian Democrats against move towards Marxists
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Locations: Moscow, Venice, Florence

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Vatican paper warns Christian Democrats against move towards Marxists

DANGEROUS NEW TACTICS IN ITALY
University's journal is criticised CALL FOR A 'UNITED FRONT' WITH REDS
By DOUGLAS HYDE
Two episodes this week vividly spotlighted the growing crisis within the Italian Christian Democrat Party and the growth of the Left Wing demand that Christians should associate with the Communists and other Marxists.
The first was when the Vatican newspaper " Osservatore Romano" publicly scolded a journal edited by one of the country's most respected priests, Fr. Agostino Gemelli, 0.F.M., for advocating association with Cornmunists and Left Wing Socialists.
The second was when Prof. La Pira, famous Mayor of Florence, sent a letter to the Press suggesting that Italy requires a new economic system, new policies, new laws and new men.
Seventy seven year old Fr. Gemelli was a convert from Marxist Socialism and atheism before the Communist Party was founded. He has for years been the Rector of the great Catholic National University of the Sacred Heart in Milan and is editor of Rivista del Clem Italiano, a publication for priests which is widely read by the clergy in Northern Italy.
The joint editor is Mgr. Francesco Olgiati, also a professor at Catholic University.
The journal recently said that " it is time to consider the inevitable inclusion of Communism and Socialism into the Italian Government, and to consider whether they might become positive factors in the solution of its problems."
The Osservatare Romano cautioned Catholic publications which suggest that the Church should consider making its peace with Communists and other Marxists.
Good faith
It also criticised what it called " weeklies which pretend to be Catholic yet never print a word against Communism, while confessors and mart) rs multiply all over the world."
Prof. La Pira's letter to the Press last Monday took up a declaration by Signor Fanfani, Christian Democrat Secretary and famous writer on social questions, that the Christian Democrats must build a new society which is neither Capitalist nor Communist. To do this, say s Signor La Pira. you must change everything in Italy, introduce a planned economy and radically change the country's political personnel.
These two episodes reflect the growing demand within the Christian Democrat Party that the Communist threat to Italy should he met by radical social reforms aimed at one and the same time at bringing social justice to the under-privileged and stealing the thunder of the Marxist Left.
To understand how this latter demand, which is backed by proposals for association with the Nenni (Marxist) Socialists and even Communists, can he made by Catholics whose good faith few would question (though more would question their political good sense) one must understand something of the process now at work within Italian. Christian Democracy.
Danger
The danger is that if those who advocate such courses succeed in getting them adopted they may play straight into the hands of the Communists—which is the last thing they want to do—and Italy's last state would then be worse than her first.
Ever since the end of the second World War, Italy has been confronted with a genuine threat of a possible Communist victory—with all that that would mean to the West and, in particular, to Catholics everywhere.
Under Dc Gasperi it was hoped that Christian Democratic Governments of the Centre would provide an answer to that threat. But in fact Communism has stubbornly continued to menace the country,
and the social and economic conditions on which it thrives have continued, too.
The inability to provide a quick answer to that dominating problem threatens now to disintegrate the Christian Democratic Party itself from within.
Those who advocate tougher measures against Communism tend to move more to the Right as time goes on and to look for possible alliances there.
Those who believe that such policies would inevitably play into the hands of the Communists tend to move more to the Left and to look for allies there.
'Justified'
I recently attended a regional conference of 40 of the local leaders of the Left Christian Democrats held in Venice. They were active Catholics, not crypto-Communists; about that there could be little doubt. But all advocated policies specifically aimed at getting the support of the Nenni Socialists.
The Nenni Socialists, it will be recalled, are Europe's most consistent fellow-travellers; their policies and propaganda are almost indistinguishable from those of the Communists themselves.
When f questioned the advisability of such a course. reminding them that the Communists were themselves advocating precisely such a " united front of the Left," they replied that they were conscious of the dangers inherent in such a tactic but considered the move to be justified by the seriousness of the situation.
They firmly believed that if they adopted a programme of agrarian and social reform almost as sweeping as that of the Nenni Socialists themselves, they would either get their support—and so break their alliance with the Communists—or they would call their bluff, revealing them as a party which was more concerned with aiding Moscow's political policies than with genuine social reform.
Welfare State
There are today similar groups whose immediate aim is unity on the Left and whose long-term aim is some sort of Welfare State in most of the big cities of Italy today.
When I met Mayor La Pira. whom these various groups regard as one of their national leaders. I found that he went further. For he advocates association with the Communists themselves.
Again. no one doubts the good faith of this dynamic Catholic. His good works and the austerity of his life are known to all.
But talking to him 1 felt that the knowledge that many members of the Communist Party of Italy are fundamentally good and have no hatred for the Church has tended to obscure for him the significance of others. particularly among the Communist leaders, who would make a Communist Italy just as bad as any other Communist country.
One might almost say that precisely because he is so good and so lovable, he finds it impossible to comprehend the depth of duplicity to which the Communists may sink.




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