LETTER FROM ROME by Alan McElwain

HERE'S a really heart. warming Christmas story. Last October, the North Italy town of Longerone was devastated and nearly 3,000 people died when a landslide crashed into the Vaiont Dam, causing a giant flood to submerge the valley below. Since then, what was left of Longerone was a sort of ghost town and the survivors were anticipating a fairly bleak Christmas.
But what happened in the last few weeks? A new kind of "flood" hit the place. Every day, hundreds of parcels arrived, addressed merely to "Longerone"—parcels of blankets, food, clothing and toys. Most of the presents were from Italians, but quite a few came from people abroad, who once had never heard of Longerone, but, having then done so under such appalling circumstances. could not put it from their hearts.
Among those who died last October were 180 of Longerone's 220 schoolchildren. The 40 who remained got most of the toys that poured in: which meant they got more presents this single Christmas than they could have anticipated in their entire childhood, The other gifts went to survivors who had lost their homes and meaere possessions and have since been accommodated in nearby villages,
That Christmas time is the children's time, even in adversity, was also demonstrated by the thoughtfulness of youngsters from another Dolomite mountain resort near Longerone.
They hauled a. pine tree down from the Alps and put it up in front of Longerone town hall. one of the few buildings the flood did not destroy.
There, among the hulks of homes and shops, and not far from the vast mass grave of the victims. was the biggest and brightest Christmas tree Longerohe had ever known:— a symbol of that human charity and neighbourly love that had its origin in the first Christmas of all.
Hearing murmerings among journalists here that covering Pope Paul's Holy Land visit is likely to be fraught with certain difficulties, I asked a wellknown woman reporter what she would do if she found she was frustrated in her attempts to file her messages or move from point to point.
"Well," she replied, "being a woman, I'll try something that has never failed me yet—burst into tears."
I'm afraid that now Pope Paul is to shatter the 'Pope never leaves Italy" tradition, we are going to be in for' a lot of TIMITOILITS in future, picturing him as a sort of Papal tourist-on-the-run.
There is, of course, every reason to believe that. following his historic trip to Palestine, he may attend the Eucharistic Congress in Bombay in 1964. Nor need one doubt, as Archbishop Heenan has hinted, that Britain will see him one day, or that America could be honoured with a visit.
But apart from these rather obvious speculations, I can see those headlines crowding in on us: "POPE WILL VISIT BLANK, VATICAN BACK. ROOM EXPERTS SAY" . . . "PAUL VI EYES MISSION FIELDS FOR SPRING JAUNT".
We had a little of it in Pope John's walkabout. rideabout time. He started it all. first with his modest, unscheduled excursions outside the Vatican, then by journeying all the way from Rome to Loretto, taking in Assisi, too—a full day away from home, if you please.
After this, the inevitable rumours had him, for a start. merely proposing to drop in at his birthplace, Sotto il Monte, or making a nostalgic pilgrimage back to his beloved Venice. where he was Patriarch before he was elected Pope in 1958. But later again, rumour inevitably ascribed to "Johnny Walker" restless feet — trips ahead to Lourdes, in France. to Fatima, in Portugal, to heaven alone knew where . .
And then, of course, the inevitable counter-rumours. No, he would not go to Lourdes because that would make it impossible for him to turn down an invitation to Fatima. No, he could not possibly go to Fatima because those envious French would drive him mad with demands that he go to Lourdes, or even back to Paris. where he had been Nuncio. These things would be the thin edge of the wedge (with apologies to Fr. Bernard Basset, S.J.), and before you knew where you were, poor old Pope John would be inundated with requests that he come here or go there and it would all end in his creating colossal international ill-will because he could not possibly please everyone, Well, as I say, now that Pope Paul is to set the pace in a really big way, reports will undoubtedly have him dashing hither and yon, operating a sort of shuttle-service with the world at large and permitting himself only the briefest occasional look-ins at his Vatican headquarters.
However, while in reality, the Holy Father is not likely to adopt a jet-age Jules Verne retie, he is likely to go off wherever and whenever he feels that by so doing he can expand the true ecumenical spirit throughout Christendom. It is an exhilarating thing to see him already beginning to "take the Vatican out of itself". How it would delight the man who started it all — great-hearted "Johnny Walker", who never went far in person, but whose presence was felt in every corner of the globe.
* * *
A word in season (if I may coin a phrase) for those who were so kind and helpful to journalists like myself covering the recent Ecumenical Council session.
New Year blessings to Archbishop Heenan, who, though rarely with a minute to himself, always found time to see me, advise me and guide me along the by no Means straight, or even narrow. ecumenical path . . .
To Mgr. Derek Warlock. whose magical ability to be in the right place at the right time when sought by pests like me might well be investigated by the Psychic Research people To Er, Thomas Stransky, the amiable and learned American Paulist in the Secretariat for the Promotion of Christian Unity . , . ("Now, Father, getting back to the . section on the Jews" . • .1.
To Fr. Edward Heston, for those excellent English-language briefings. (What a job, being shot at not only by the well-intentioned well-informed, hut the cranks and sheer bores who butted in on these affairs.) . .
To the American hierarchy's daily panel, and the English hierarchy's weekly press conference . . .
And, in my own particular case, to Cardinal Norman Gilroy. of Sydney. and the indefatigable Archbishop Guilford Young, of Hobart, Tasmania, for giving nie an ecumenical hand in general and an Australian one in particular. And many more, . .
• Here's to next time! * * * For 10 years, citieens of a village near Padua have been petitioning the Italian government to pave its wretched streets and build it a decent school, The village, however, has remained neglected and forlorn. The only practical response to its appeals has come from Mrs. Gighola Valandro, a woman member of parliament. "Change the name of your village if you want the government to help you," she wrote.
Mussolini.Thenaine of the village is "Mussolini" means muslin weavers and the name goes bock to at least the 18th century. The 500 villagers have flatly refused to change it simply because one man named (Benito) Mussolini brought shame upon it and led Italy into a disastrous war.
Not only are Mussolini's most urgent needs ignored, but in 1945 anti-Fascist partisans removed all road signs leading to the village and the authorities have never replaced them.
When Benito Mussolini was alive, the villagers thought they might cash in on the name. They deputed the parish priest, Don Luigi Costa, to write the Duce a long, detailed account of their needs, and to solicit his aid.
In 1938, he sent a surly reply, repudiating Mussolini, saying that his name was even older than the village and adding that he saw no reason to favour the place just because it bore the same name as himself.
He was, in any case, busy glorifying Rome, centre of his Imperialistic dream, and wanted no part of impoverished hamlets.
Bureaucratic discrimination against Mussolini reached idio tic limits during a recent television programme on the Italian State-controlled network.
Various villages in the Padua area were engaged in a contest with those in another district. Each village team proudly carried a banner bearing its name.
When. at a rehearsal. the TV directors saw "Mussolini" flaunted on a banner, they reeled. Fearing Communist reaction, they snatched the ban ner from the villagers, who finally appeared before the cameras holding aloft a banner with the strange device "Musolin".
Last act: When the Mussolini team returned home, it was upbraided for submitting to the humiliating TV censorship * * * Attilio Pollastri has introduced a sour note into Rome's holiday festivities by announc
log that he despises Italy's newly-introduced 10 lire and one lire. banknotes. "If I were 20 years younger. I could copy them with the greatest of ease," he says. What is more, the authorities believe him. At 80, Pollastri is still acknowledged as -The King of the Counterfeiters". He began his engraving activities modestly when, back in 1915, he put into prolific circulation a commendable copy of the small two-lire note (now non-existent), Later. he graduated to a new 100 lire note and made such a flawless reproduction that the Bank of Italy was forced to withdraw its entire issue. Pollastri, however, was caught and sentenced to seven years gaol.
While in prison, he graciously wrote, "for the use and benefit of the Bank of Italy", a textbook on the engraving of banknotes. 11 proved so tech nically valuable that the bank adapted many of its hints and. gratefully, persuaded the State to reduce Pollastri's sentence.
After the war, Pollastri was again gaoled, an and off, for counterfeiting. He has retired now, but every time a new banknote issue comes out, the Old Master releases his cons• ments to the newspapers, often witty, invariably ironic.
As for the latest notes. he readily admits that the image of Michelangelo on the 10 lire and of Verdi on the one lira are "quite well done". But, he adds, they are absurdly simple for any forger worth his reputation to duplicate. "Were my hand as steady as it was even when I was 60, I'd prove it to you," he says.
"Nonsense," snaps Professor Mario Baiardi, the Bank of Italy's chief engraver. He is not. however, taking the Old Master up,