The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-10-15
VATICAN NOT
 TAKING SIDES
(continued from Page il


 
 gation of the faith, one of the high est offices of the church, announced through his secretary, Father Hein- zen:
 There is absolutely no founda- toin for this rumor."
 Monsignor Dominic Tardini, as- sistant secretary of state, said ill- dignantly:
 "It is not true: there is absolute ly nothing in It."
 Asked whether the Vatican in- tended to issue an official, formal denial, Mgr. Tardini said 1t is not the custom for the Vatican to dig nify such reports with formal an. swers.
 It was pointed out that the Vati- can maintains excellent relations with China and recently appointed Q number of native bishops to shep- herd the native Catholic community of more than 2,600000.
 In the absence of Q formal denial an authoritative Vatican spokesman said:
 "The Vatican'S policy in the Far Eastern conflict is one of complete neutrality.
 "The church can only deplore 6 conflict between two nations as t deplores all armed conflicts and wars. The church intends to com bat communism in the Orient main- ly through propaganda action in It's own nlissionsa nd thruogh the na- tive clergy, which is well established nj China but Is practically non- existent in aJpan.
 Msgr. Joseph Pizzardo, undersec- retary of state for extraordinary ecclesiastical affairs, conferred this morning with the Pope at Castel Qandalfo and was believed to have informed the Pope of the reports It was understood that when the Vatican received official report from the church heirarchy in the United States Q denial might be issued through the Osservatore Ro- mano, the Vatican newspaper or- gan.
 Other prelates who sisued em. phatic denials of the dispatch of a secret memorandum to China i1- cluded Mgr. Joseph Maluzardi, vice-secretary of the department of extraordinary ecclesiastical affairs, which deals directly with such mat ters; Archbishop Celso Constantini, secretary general of the congrega- ton for the propagation of the faith, and former apostolic delegate to China, and Father H. l.. Hughes, editor of the English edition of the publication section of the congrega- ton for the propagation of the faith.
 Ossining, N. Y., Oct. 15.-(UP)- Bishop James Edward Walsh, sll- perior general of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, commented as follows on the Vati- cans position in the Far Eastern crisis:
 "The position of the Holy See is clear. It is the common spiritual father of all nations, and China and Japan are equally its children. No matter what plausible arguments of a political nature are given by either side, the church and its missionaries remain completely neutral.
 Catholic missionaries in China comprise 10 different nationalities To conceive the Holy Sec as in- structing these missionaries to take sides in trying to convince the Chinese people of the superiority of the Japanase civilization is noth- ing short of nonsensical.
 "Tt is also equally absurd to fancy that the Holy See is sending orders to its missionaries of all nationallties to give Japanese mili- tmry authorities the clear impression that on the part of the Catholic church there is no obstacle Gp com~ plete collaboration"