Gasparri Speaks Out

"Nothing new yesterday, nothing new tomorrow, nothing new since 1870!" said Cardinal Gasparri last week and thereby brushed into the politico-ecclesiastical wastebaskets, a dozen misconceptions.

Had there not been dawning these several years a glorious rapprochement between Italian State and Mother Church? Did not the Mussolini dictatorship support the Pope more than any other Italian Government in three generations? Did not even the Pope support Mussolini? No, no, and no, is now the official answer.

His Eminence Peter Cardinal Gasparri has been, since the beginning of the present pontificate, Papal Secretary of State, the official closest to the Holy Father. Recently it has seemed to some eager-eyed Fascists that the Cardinal's zeal for Fascismo has been insufficiently hot. At him went the Mussolini press unmuzzled. Fascist Secretary Farinacci charged him with having "displayed a vulgar demagogy." The Pope took notice, sent to the Cardinal Secretary a medal and with it a letter of supreme approbation:

"Our daily collaborator and authorized interpreter of our ideas has been an indefatigable aid under many heavy difficulties, but has been comforted by serving the cause of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ."

Thus approved, the Cardinal Secretary went to Paris last week, and a reporter of L'Eclair found him surprisingly willing to talk. Not once could the reporter bring the name of Mussolini to the Cardinal's lips, but step by step through the interview the third person masculine referred invariably to the Dictator beyond the Alps. Summarizing recent history, the Cardinal said: "He has replaced the crucifix in the schools; he has returned the buildings which belonged to the Jesuits.

"He has relieved the priests of military duty; he has disbanded the Free Masons. He has made obligatory the teaching of the Catechism in primary schools. He has replaced at the Colosseum a cross taken away 15 years ago. But that is not much; it is very little."

What of the immediate future? Would there be radical changes in the relations of State and Church? Would the Pope come out from prison? Would he consent to be once more an Italian as well as a world power? "It is all conversations," replied the Cardinal. "He [Mussolini] does us an amiable favor from time to time but nothing is changed. I see no prospect of a change. Papal Rome is adamant." In a last attempt to strike a spark of Italian patriotism, the reporter asked about the proposed revivification of the Roman Empire. The Cardinal chuckled: "Oh, you like novelties in Paris . . . a new Roman Empire growing from its ashes--dead for so long!"

But was this dream not comparable to the Vatican's ideal of the Kingdom of Christ? Down came the Cardinal's eyebrows into a deep frown, and ire flashed from the darkness. "How dare you make that comparison?" he thundered: "The idea of Christ as King is as old as the Christian world. Empires have passed and others will pass and be forgotten, but the Kingdom of Christ will live on.

"Above monarchs, whatever their titles, whatever may be their power, whatever may be their ambitions, rules Christ, of whom we are all humble servants."

It was observed that at any rate a Cardinal had spoken once again as Cardinals used to speak long before Garibaldi's mob, or Vittorio Emanuele's gay-plumed cavalry assaulted and captured the Seven Hills.