Papal Offense-Defense

When Pope Pius XI mounts to the roof of the Vatican he sees, on Monte Mario a mile to the north, something which vexes him. It is the Collegio Internazionale, Methodist institution. Of all Protestant denominations in Italy the Methodists have made themselves most disturbing to the Holy See by aggressive evangelism.

Last week L'Osservatore Romano, Vatican newspaper, even accused them of trying to take advantage of last month's earthquake (TIME, Aug. 4, Aug. 11) to convert the bewildered populace.

Other Italian papers hinted that this was the real reason that Prime Minister Mussolini had rejected earthquake aid from the Protestant-supported American Red Cross. L'Osservatore Romano last week struck directly at the Methodists' Collegio Internazionale. Catholic students of the college have complained because the school required each to have a companion when he goes to mass. Observed L'Osservatore Romano: "In a college where receptions are given at which Protestant girls are present; where there are cinema shows with the usual falsifications against the Papacy; where swimming is indulged in with ultra-modern conceptions on the question of surveillance, the excuse that the students have no one to accompany them to Mass seems secondary when it comes to fulfilling the act of devotion."

Antipathy to Methodist (and to slightly less extent Baptist) activities in Italy inspired the Pope's recent denunciation of Protestant proselytizing (TIME. July 14). Last week he proceeded beyond mere denunciation. He organized a defensive-offensive body, the Pontifical Organization for Preservation of the Faith and for the Provision of New Churches in Rome. As president of this militant religious police His Holiness appointed newly-hatted Francesco Cardinal Marchetti-Selvaggiani, 58, and instructed him to work in close co-operation with Basilio Cardinal Pompili, vicar-general of Rome. Well equipped is Cardinal Marchetti-Selvaggiani for his new assignment. Born in Rome he knows its neighborhoods and people better than most of his Cardinal colleagues. As secretary of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith the past seven years, he is an expert in this sort of proselytizing.

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