Evening star., 1924-08-28

! steal coincidence, by the same initials
| OK. k) that branded Berlin's VEN
delta of the seventies and eighties.
The holy see points. too. to the ty-
phoons it has come through, down
the long years, in Spain, Austria and
France-to say nothing of its hand
to-hand struggle with Italy at Rome
tseif-and, as its spokesmen narrate
tn, Sc episodes. they profess to regard
| the ku kluN klan, by comparison, as
| an ephemeral development that can
! carry no real or lasting menace.
hill" Catholicism is under klan
fire in the United States. the Vati-
can S survey of the religious situation
throughout the world reveals, from
its own standpoint. the most promis-
ing era the Church of Rome has ever
| faced. Cardinal Gasparri. the papal
secretary of state, in an informal dis
cussion with Vatican dignitaries and
| attaches the other day, Summa rized
| the outlook. ip graphic terms. In ef-
| feet. though not teXtually, this is
what he said
War Obliterated Enem
"Roundly. there are 100000. 900 Ro-
man Catholics In the world. The
great war ob.iterated, without the lift
ing of finger by the Pope, the three
| principal enemies of the Roman faith
.
Today. 10 years after the commence
! :nent of the war, there are more than
| twice as many foreign states which
| maintain formal diplomatic relations
with the Hoy See than there were
before the war. In 1914. only IL
states had ENJOYS at the Vatican.
Today, twenty-four are thus rep
resented. There will shortly be three
more. The only important nations
ran tod -
United States, Sweden, Norway, Den
/ mark. Finland, China, Turkey and
Mexico. Even Soviet Russia has a
| minister at the Vatican. Relations
with Japan are by way of esta ablish-
ment. papal delegate is now sta
| toned in Toxic. Practically all the
new states created by the war have
| ENJOYS at the Holy See. Papal in
. fluences in both hemispheres is of
such a character that the nations,
who watch one another so vigilantly
in the general diplomatic field rec
ognize the Importance of having their
own spokesmen at the Vatican. Ger
| many has two envoys--one> who reps
| resents the Reich and another who is
the Minister of Bavaria"
Political lncursiOn Unhappy.
Pope Plus NJ gives no sign of any
least to such extent as marked the
career of that Shrewd statesman, Leo
NH. The present Popes first excur-
sion into the tortuous domain of in
ternational affairs. in July. 1923, was
not a very happy one. In an en-
Cyclical dealing with various foreign
affairs. Plus NJ discussed, briefly, the
French occupation of the Ruhr. 4
merely passing reference, in more or
less general terms, decried the French
policy of deporting German citizens
from their home districts (as If the
Germans themselves had not set a
Lille during the war;. The French
envoy at the Vatican raised an imme
diate and vehement protest. where
upon the Pope supplemented the en-
cyclical with some observations less
pleasing to the Germans and which
l1mollifed the French.
Eenito Mussolini used to be an ar
dent Socialist, and socialism since
time immemorial has been the Church
of Rome.s pet aversion. There must
have been corresponding anxiety
when the generalissimo of the Black
Shirts, in October. 1922, marched on
Rome and usurped autocratic power
over all and sundry in Italy. Mus
solini is Roman Catholic by faith, like
| the overwhelming majority of Ital-
ianS, but has never ranked as a par
ticularly devout son of the Church.
The dictator proceeded to establish
the most cordial relations with Plus