"We Protest!"

A sudden report from Rome, originated in semiofficial circles, stated that it was very unlikely that any alteration would take place in the official relations between the Vatican and the Mussolini Government.

There are times when so vague and negative an announcement is news, and this is one of them, for the relations of the Vatican to Mussolini's Govern-ment have been secret and increasingly friendly, and Mussolini's friends have endeavored to capitalize the fact into a fait accompli which would end the 50-year-old scandal of Rome.

Prior to 1870 Rome and the Papal States were governed by the Vatican. The final act of the risorgimento (resurrection of the Italian State) was the forcible occupation of Rome (Sept. 20, 1870) by the troops of King Vittorio Emanuele I. Since that time the Popes have considered themselves prisoners in the Vatican, and have steadfastly refused to accept the annual appropriation of revenues, equivalent to their former revenues from the Papal States, granted them by the Italian Parliament. The King was excommunicated and all good Catholics forbidden to take part in national elections.

With the advent of Fascismo and the accession of the present Pope Pius XI (Achille Ratti), there was hope that the Vatican would reconcile itself to the act of 1870. The Catholic Partita Popolare had been organized by a little priest, Don Sturzo, and held the balance of power in the Parliament. The reactionary wing of the Vatican found itself in,thorough sympathy with the paternalistic nature of Fascism's aims. There was a good bit of cordial cooperation accomplished secretly. Filippo Cremonesi, Royal Commissioner appointed by Mussolini to succeed the Mayor of Rome, paid a call on Cardinal Pompili, Vicar of Rome, the officer whose predecessors had once ruled the city under the Papal States. His call was returned noncommittally (TiME, March 24, 1923). The Fascisti restored religious education in the public schools. In return for these many favors, the Vatican helped Mussolini to break the power of little Don Sturzo, and the Catholic Partita Popolare, leaving the Fascisti the only real political party in Italy.

With this background, much was hoped, especially as the new Pope deferred for a year issuance of his Encyclical, corresponding intrinsically to a new President's first message to Congress. But when the Latin document was finally made public in 1923, it referred to the occupation of Rome by the Italian Monarchy, with the words: "We protest! And we ought to protest!"

Against this pronunciamento Mussolini has striven in vain, and now rumors have been quieted by the news that there is, after all, to be no change in Vatican-Quirinal relations, and that Pope Pius I apparently feels that the Holy, Roman and Apostolic Church is an institution of greater permanency than the latest condottore who has laid strong hands on the Eternal City.