Devious Diplomacy

The men who schedule the Kremlin's diplomacy decided last week that the time had come to drive a wedge among Catholics. They chose Izvestia, official organ of the Soviet Government, as the instrument, and a recent Foreign Policy Association report on Vatican policy as a handy starting point. Wrote Izvestia:

"The inglorious part played by the Vatican in Hitler's and Mussolini's adventures in Spain is widely known. The Vatican kept silent when Italy launched the 'stab in the back' attack on France in June, 1940. Now the Vatican preaches 'impartial love for all nations' but the fact remains that in this great historic battle of freedom-loving people against the enemy of mankind, the Vatican occupied the position of an outright accomplice of Fascism. . . . Franco is a Vatican pet and Franco's Spain is the image of the clerical states of postwar Europe which the Vatican would like to see emerge. . . . Like the Italians, the Catholics of England, America, Spain, Poland and other countries are becoming convinced of the pro-Fascist character of the Vatican's policy. The Foreign Policy Association is right when it states that it foresees 'an approaching period of unprecedented anticlericalism.' "

Actually, the core of the Foreign Policy Association report was this definition of the Pope's role in modern world affairs: "The view that the Pope is at heart a fascist and wishes to see the triumph of modern dictatorships . . . proves to be without foundation in fact. At the same time, he is not a supporter of democracy but is just what he claims to be--indifferent to political forms, accepting any Government which will meet the minimum demands of the Church."

The Nub. Knowing readers spotted a clue to the attack in Izvestia's inclusion of Poland among the countries supposedly dissatisfied with Vatican policy. The Russians' clear meaning was: while we are arranging a "suitable" postwar Government for Poland, will Catholics who share our distrust of clericalism please urge the Vatican not to use its enormous influence with Polish Catholics against us.

Izvestia's bid brought swift, hot retorts from many a U.S. Catholic, cold disapproval from many a non-Catholic. Sharpest comeback was from Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen: "As Soviet Russia has already served notice that America and Great Britain may not interfere in the question of Poland, so now it serves notice on religion that it may not interfere in the question of Europe. From now on we may expect . . . a separate peace."

Less hotheaded Catholics hoped that Monsignor Sheen had not helped the Kremlin drive a wedge.

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