VATICAN AND POLITICS

Evening Star, Issue 19791, 15 February 1928, Page 13

VATICAN AND POLITICS

ATTACK ON FRENCH LOYAL!isT3

In the reply of the Rope to the Christmas greetings trom the Sacred College, liis Holiness deplored the accusations levelled against him in Franco of having been inspired by political rather than religions motives. An article in the ‘National Review ’ for November on the re-entry nt the Vatican into politics, signed “Pnllio,” is a review of a number of significant incidents. It opens with an account of the recent Papal policy towards the French Royalist party, of which the acknowledged leader is M. Charles Manrras. Since the war the directors of the party have done their utmost to identify the Royalist movement with the Roman Catholic renaissance in France. Because the Vatican, since the time of Leo XIH, lias favored the I acceptance of the Republic, it inis tclt somewhat uneasy nocau.se oi the endeavor of the Royalists to associate the party with Roman Catholicism, and tlie former Papal Nuncio at Paris (Cardinal Ccrrotti) did his best to discourage accessions to the Royalist .League. In the political crisis which occurred in the middle of 1926, when .Ministry succeeded Ministry in rapid succession, the position was regarded so seriously that insurances were taken out against a Royalist, coup d’etat. No sooner, however., had M. Poincare been able to stabilise the situation than the Archbishop of Bordeaux issued a bitter denunciation of Manrras and his followers, basing it upon some early writings of Manrras which 'had been incorporated in n phamphlct written by a pro-German Belgian. Later tho Archbishop withdrew the allegations against Manrras. The directors of the Royalists issued a respectful protest against the denunciation. It was thought at the time that the Pope had been ill-informed on the charges against Manrras, hut on tho day on which the protest of the Royalists appeared n letter from Pius XT. was published supporting the Archbishop of Bordeaux in his attack. In October, 1926, it was announced by. the Nuncio that if Manrras were deposed the party would be readmitted to favor. The climax was reached when, in December, the Pope definitely forbade all Roman Catholics to read or encourage newspapers published by men whoso morals he could not approve. This was aimed directly at the ‘ Action Francaisc,’ the Royalist organ. The directors replied by a flat refusal to abandon Manrras, and declared that in political matters the reigning Pope was not exempt from human error. The answer to the Vatican was to place the ‘Action Francaisc’ on the Index. •

On New Year’s Day, 1927, the usually formal call of the diplomatic body at the Elyuee to compliment the President was varied in an unheard of manner by tile Nuncio, Monsignor Maglionc, who, instead of confining his remarks ns doyen io tho usual compliments, uttered a fervent eulogy of the foreign policy of M. Briand, whose policy in respect to German affairs was known to bo distasteful to his colleagues. A day or two later it became known that tho Nuncio at Berlin had publicly supported the German Nationalists, while his colleague at Warsaw had avoided all official coremonies. It was then remembered that Cardinal' Gasparri, the Pope’s Secretary of State, had been markedly proGorman during the war, and had boycotted masses hold in Rome for martyred Belgian priests while celebrating those for the Kaiser’s birthday in great state. The connection between these actions and the Royalist party lies in the fact that the party is intensely patriotic and has repeatedly warned Europe against German evasion of the Treaty of Versailles. Any aggrandisement of Germany will find its most bitter opponent in the French Royalist party, and anyone hoping to gain from the aggrandisement of Germany cannot do better than weaken or destroy the influence of the Royalists.

European publicists _ therefore interpret Monsignor Maglione’s speech to the President as an indication that the Vatican proposes to reappear in European politics as a dominating force. The opinion is expressed that there will be a determined attempt to enter the League of Nations._ There is also mentioned the possibility of a rearrangement of European politics, with the Pope as arbiter, with his power resting on a central Catholic empire. The realisation of tin's dream necessitates the support'of the Governments at every step, and therefore the