The recent decree of the Holy Office forbidding Catholics to vote for a candidate who favours Communism, whether he is a Communist or not, does not apply to countries behind the Iron Curtain, maintains an article in L'Osservotore della Domenico, the Vatican weekly, last week.
Pointing out that the new decree is an amplification of the 1949 excommunication of Catholics who join the Communist party or work for it, the article argues that, because the earlier decree applies to those who "knowingly and freely" aid the Communists, the present decree would apply only where voters are free to cast their votes as they wish and have the full facts on what they are doing.