CHECK TO DICTATORS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 March 1939, Page 5

CHECK TO DICTATORS

WORLD COMMENT ON PAPAL ELECTION CARDINAL PACELLI STRONGLY ANTI-FASCIST. WHITTLING DOWN OF DEMANDS ANTICIPATED. By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright. LONDON, March 3. World comment is generally favourable toward the election of Cardinal Pacelli. There is some disappointment in Germany and Italy. In Rome, political circles consider the election constitutes a setback to Signor Mussolini, because Cardinal Pacelli is a strong anti-Fascist.

In Berlin, newspapers which were previously critical of Cardinal Pacelli are now neutral. Paris believes that the Pope will carry on the policy of his predecessor. Madame Tabouis says the election will tend to change Hitler’s and Mussolini’s plans. ' Their demands undoubtedly will be whittled down and expressed more diplomatically than if a weaker Rope had been elected.

. SEEKING QUIET NEW POPE RETIRES TO CELL. VATICAN CITY, March 2. After the election ritual, Cardinal Pacelli, the newly-elected Pope, returned to his conclave cell, No. 13, because he was extremely fatigued and did not desire to make the tiring removal to the Papal apartments till tomorrow. After an Angelus has been chanted at the Basilica of St. Peter to the departure of the last of the faithful Popes, he descended the stairs of the Grotto 'of St. Peter, where Piux XI lies buried. The new Pope expressed a wish to be left alone before the tomb of the man who was his teacher and who had frequently referred to him as “our beloved son.” He knelt for five minutes before the tomb, and then went to his cell, in which there had been placed at his wish the simple bedstead on which his predecessor died. AMERICAN OPINION. EXPRESSIONS OF SATISFACTION & PLEASURE. NEW YORK, March 3. Persons in official and semi-official life generally have expressed gratification at the election of Cardinal Pacelli, reports the Washington correspondent of the “New York Times.” Particular interest has been occasioned because of the friendship he formed when he made a private visit to the. United States in 1936, during which he was the guest of President Roosevelt. The Secretary of State, Mr Cordell Hull, said the selection was a matter of satisfaction and pleasure. DUCE’S CONGRATULATIONS. ROME, March 3. Signal Mussolini has telegraphed congratulations to the new Pope. PEACE & CHARITY AN IMPASSIONED APPEAL. POPE’S FIRST BROADCAST. (Received This Day, 9.30 a.m.) VATICAN CITY, March 3. The Pope, in a broadcast in Latin, appealed impassionedly for international justice and concord, to enable the peoples of the world to continue a civilised progress programme. He said his pontificate would be in furtherance of world peace and charity. He spoke for four minutes, in a clear, ringing voice, providing a great contrast with the tones of his predecessor. Members of the Vatican were very much impressed with the vigour with which the Pope dealt with the forces of disruption throughout the world. CORONATION ON MARCH 12. (British Official Wireless.* (Received This Day, 10.10 a.m.) ROME, March 3. It is officially announced that March 12 is to be the date of the Pope’s coronation.

PRINCE OF CHURCH CARDINAL PACELLI’S CAREER RECORD OF BRILLIANT SERVICE AS DIPLOMAT. HELD IN GREAT HONOUR BY PREDECESSOR.

Tall, slender, and ascetic in appearance, though possessed of immense driving force and great charm of manner, Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli brings to his high office the sum of 37 years’ experience in the diplomatic service of the Holy See, together with gifts of the highest order in scholarship, oratory and mental power. Only once before' in the history of the Papacy has a Cardinal Secretary of State been elected to the Throne of St Peter, when the monk Hildebrand became Pope Gregory VII in 1037. From the appointment of Cardinal Pacelli to the office of Secretary of State is dated the Papal crusade against Communism, and he is also regarded as inspirer of the war waged by the Church against the antiChristian policy of Nazi Germany. Since he took office as Nuncio at Munich in 1917 the eyes of the world have been upon him, and even as early as the latter half of 1936, when he paid a private visit to the United States of America, it was freely prophesied 'dial the mantle of Pope Pius XI would fill upon him, and it’ is known that the-late Pope favoured him as his successor.

During the Great War -Monsignor Pacelli was appointed Nuncio at Munich, a channel through which many important diplomatic negotiations were carried on with the warring nations. Pope Benedict’s famous peace proposals were entrusted to him. Later, in the first of Germany’s numerous small putsches, he escaped assassination in the streets of Munich. With the founding of the Weimar Republic he established a Nunciature in Berlin and arranged concordats between the Vatican and Bavaria and Prussia.

As Secretary of State, Cardinal Pacelli’s achievements were perhaps less spectacular than those of his predecessors, such as Cardinal Consalvi, who arranged a concordat with Napoleon, or Cardinal Gasparri, who con-

eluded the Lateran treaties with Mussolini. Nevertheless, when the late Pope sent him as legate to Lourdes for the closing ceremonies of Holy Year in 1935, the Holy Father gave him the following warm endorsement: — “We have entrusted to you, our beloved son, who so eagerly serves the cause of the Church in our daily activity to the extent that you may be called our closest collaborator, with this most honoured mission. .. Also because you are a prince of the Church and ’because of the sublime understanding achievements you have accomplished for the good of the soul, and for your special eloquence.”

DIGNITY AND COURAGE. The courage- that Cardinal Pacelli inherits from his military ancestry was well demonstrated during the Kurt Eisner putsch in Munich in 1917, already referred to. One night the Nunciature was attacked and machinegun bullets came through the windows. In spite of a protest by Monsignor Pacelli, the Nunciature was invaded a few days later. He faced the attackers, and, though threatened with a revolver, maintained a dignity and resolution which commanded their respect and resulted in their departure. Monsignor Pacelli went immediately to register a protest, securing an immediate apology and a promise that the diplomatic immunity would never again be violated. Pope Pius XI recalled Monsignor Pacelli to Rome in 1929, and in December created him Cardinal and appointed him Secretary of State. He did not take office, however, till the following February. During his office a concordat between the Holy See and Rumania was ratified, and new ones were concluded with Baden Austria, the German Reich and Yugoslavia. From his presence at the head of the Secretariat dates the Papal crusade against Communism, perhaps the most significant stand in the modern policy of the Vatican. A SPLENDID LINGUIST. The new Pope is a splendid linguist, speaking seven distinct languages fluently. Toward the end of 1936 he performed the feat of addressing a group of journalists at the Vatican for an hour in Italian. French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, English and Latin, his accent in each language impeccable.

In the course of his career he has travelled extensively. In 1911 he formed part of the delegation headed by Cardinal Bonzano which represented Pope Pius X at the Coronation of King George V of England. In October, 1934, he was sent as Cardinal Legate to the International Eucharistic Congress in Buenos Aires. In April, 1935. he represented the Pope at the closing of the Holy Year of Redemption in the Sanctuary of Lourdes. In the latter half of 1936 he went on a private journey to the United States. His holidays have usually been spent in a religious house in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Constance.

In the days of his youth the new Pope was very fond of all kinds of sport, and excelled particularly in horseback riding and swimming.