Passing Storm

It was the week of his 82nd birthday, but Pope Pius XII was in no mood to celebrate. For days he fumed and brooded in his chambers. Then Osservatore Romano curtly announced that because of "the bitterness, sorrow and outrage in Italy," His Holiness had canceled the festivities that were to mark the 19th anniversary of his coronation. Finally, the Vatican lashed out at the culprits who had aroused its fury: it excommunicated the three Florentine judges who had convicted the Bishop of Prato of criminal defamation for having called the civil marriage of a local couple "scandalous concubinage" (TIME, March 10).

The Vatican's action was drastic enough to raise the ancient quarrel between church and state in Italy to sudden white heat. Communists and left-wingers charged church interference in Italian politics; Catholics all over the nation held parades and rallies in support of the bishop. The Vatican radio declared that "the church is being denied liberty in the exercise of its sovereign powers." In the Chamber of Deputies, a debate on a Communist-sponsored bill to curb "clerical interference in political affairs" ended in fisticuffs between the Christian Democrats and their Communist hecklers.

The eruption seemed to provide the catharsis that Italy needed. Though the country has not heard the last of the Bishop of Prato--he has filed an appeal--all the violence subsided as suddenly as a summer storm. "As a Catholic," said Premier Adone Zoli of the bishop's conviction, "I am of course saddened. But as Prime Minister I can only believe that justice must take its course." At week's end the Vatican itself seemed ready to trim its tone to the nation's mood. "The time has come," said Osservatore Romano, "to allow things to return to equilibrium."

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