The Daily Alaska empire., 1939-02-10
POPE PLUS xI MOST F0RCEFUL
 OF ALL TIMES
Stood Out as Fighting Head of Roman Catholic
 Church
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 matic, he used deeds and words, both spoken and written, in these campaigns, projecting his ideas by encyclicals, pastoral letters, radio and, sometimes, by his personal ap- pearances. His mass of expiation for the anti-religious movement in the Soviet Union, said in St. Peters March l9, 1930 he turned into a solemn protest which echoed throughout the Christian world. Down through the years he persis- tently condemned communism.
 In 1926 he called upon all Christ ians, regardless of sect, to pray for Mexican Catholics. the heirarchy of that republic having withdrawn the priests from all churches in protest against suddenly enforced constitu- tional regulations. The controversy lasted three years, famed at one stage into open revolt involved at another the deportation of all Cath olic bishops and aroused proposals of a Catholic boycott against the government. But the Pope frowned upon boycotts, ordered his priests to stay out of politics, forbade them to take up arms and when they fin- ally returned to their parishes, they resumed work under a liberalized in- depreciation of the laws. President Cardenas of Mexico, in 1888, boast ed there was freedom of worship in the country. provided the church keeps its hands out of government tai affairs"
 French Question
 The French question confronted Plus at the start of his reign. The gap between church and government there, caused by expulsion of religi- GUS orders in 1905, had been bridged only in 1921, when a papal nuncio was returned to Paris. But the struc- ture was constantly imperilled by activities of French royalists, all ardent Catholics.
 Plus braced the bridge into rigid ity by putting "L' Action Francaise, :" official publication of the royalists, on the index, thus banning it as reading for all faithful Catholics. He explained that churchmen might rightly prefer a Monarchy to a Republic, but that the political action advocated by the periodical was pernicious. The action virtually barred Catholics from membership in the royalist party and paved the way for cordial relations between Vatican City and Paris.
 Other Controversies
 Controversies with the totalitari- an regimes in Italy and Germany hinged largely upon the Pope's in- sistence upon the right of the Church to train children in Church schools. There were political ques- tions too with Italy, but these were resolved by the Lateran treaties, under which the 110-acre domain of Vatican City arose as a sovereign territory and the Holy See acknow- ledged the House of Savoy as the ruling family of united Italy. The accompanying concordat stipulated Catholicism as the religion of the Italian nation and permitted re- ligious instruction in primary and secondary schools. But Premier Benito Mussolini held this did not abrogate the right of the govern ment to say how children should be trained for citizenship and this dis pute, after a sharp flare-up in 1880, never was fully resolved.
 Aroused at Hitler
 So, too, Pope Plus claimed that de- crees of Adolf Hitler's Nazi govern ment in Germany, hostile to Catho- lie Youth organizations, was a vio- lation of the concordat of 1888. Gen. sorship of sermons, especially after the absorption of Austria and the of the Sudetan area of Czeehosloyakia, irked the Church. Also the Nazi sterilization law was abhorent to the Pope and Hitler ism's anti-Semitic measures drew sharp rebukes from him.
 Spanish Insurgency
 Spain's civil war was recurring sore spot. The Vatican saw Loyalst Spain as communistic, and ex- changed envoys with the Insurgent