Evening star., 1939-10-28
A Profound AnuIysis

conduct of the Vatican'S foreign rela-
tions as papal secretary of state, Pope
Plus XII lashes out, in the maiden
encyclical of his reign, at the totali-
tartan system of government now en-
gagged, with the aid of torpedoes,
bombs and shells, in attempting to
impose itself upon democratic civil
lization.
The Holy Father mentions no
names, but leaves little to the imagi-
nation His shafts are aimed at those
governments and rulers who assume
that autonomy which belongs exclu-
sively to the Supreme Maker" The
terse description fits perfectly the
regimes and the ideologies which
prevail in Berlin and Moscow and in
Toxic and Rome.
Naturally, it is the fate of Poland
which arouses the Pope's keenest
sympathy With its population Of
roundly 3Oo0o,O0o Catholics, the Pol
ish state was Catholic nation ex-
ceeded in size probably only by Cath
olic France and Italy, but tied to the
church by much closer bonds than
unite those Western European peo-
Piles to the Holy See. Poland con-
tanned more Roman Catholics than
reside in either Germany or the
United States, with an estimated
total of some $4,000 900, more or less,
In each.
Plus XII recites plaintively his fu-
tile efforts to avert the present war.
He tried every means to spare man
kind and Christianity the horror of
world conflagration, even at the risk
of having our intentions and our
aims misunderstood" His Holiness
recalls, adding with sorrow" that
"our advice, If heard with respect,
was not, however, followed" It is in
tones amounting to scathing indict-
ment for high crimes and misde-
meanors that the head of the world
wide church castigates the Nazi
Blitzkrieg, which wiped out Poland's
independence in three weeks. THE
blood Of countless human beings,
even n-combatants," says Plus,
"raises a piteous dirge over a nation
such as our dear Poland, which, for
its fidelity to the church, for its serv-
ices in the defense of Christian civil
lization, written in indelible charac-
ters in the annals of history, has the
right to the generous, brotherly SYM
pathy of the whole world"
But it is in the Pope's condemna-
ton Of the political immortality Of
totalitarianism-it cynical contempt
for law and order and peace among
the nations-that the chief signifi-
canoe of Plus encyclical is to be
found. Roundly he blames denial of
'the authority of God and the sway
of His law" for the rise of govern
ments which make the state the last
end of life" It's effects, he argues,
are to "break the unity of supra
national society, rob the law of ma
tions of foundation and vigor, lead
to a violation of others rights, and
impede agreement and peaceful in
tercourse."
The Pope comedies that treaties
may become outdated. But he pill
1ories unqualifledly the prediction
of dictator states to convert them at
will into scraps of paper, as Ger
many, Soviet Russia and Japan have
done in contemporary years. ITO
consider treaties on principle as
ephemeral," says the supreme pom
tiff, and tacitly to assume the au-
thorlty to rescind them unilaterally
when they are no longer to ones ad-
vantage would be to abolish all mu-
tual trust among states"
The former Cardinal Pacelli, wise
In statecraft of his day to a degree
matched by few of his predecessors
on the papal throne, pleads elo-
quently for peace at the end of the
present conflict that will not sow the
seeds Of fresh wars to come. "The
hour Of victory" Pope Plus adjures,
'is the hour of temptation" Danger
exists, he fears, that settlements
and decisions born in such condi-
tions may be nothing else than in
justice in the cloak of justice. His
Holiness holds that "the only hope
for the future is that the new order
instead of resting on quicksands of
ephemeral standards depending only
on selfish interests of groups and in
dividuals, should be based on the
solid rock of natural law and divine
revelation" That is clearly an ex-
preston of papal trust that the Eu-
ropean war will not eventuate in an
other Versailles dictate" as the
Nazis call the peace of 1919, but 1t is
also a warning to Hitler and his
aides that they must not expect q
peace designed to perpetuate the
pagan concept of the racial state