Pope & Democracy

The Roman Catholic Church has long made it an earthly policy to tolerate any form of government under which it is free to pursue its mission. Toleration does not, of course, constitute endorsement or support. Last October, however, Pope Pius XI, taking into account the recent course of world events came near to praising democracy. In a message to the U. S. hierarchy for the golden jubilee of the Catholic University in Washington he wrote:

"The Catholic cries out against any civic philosophy which would degrade man to the position of a soulless pawn in a sordid game of power and prestige, or would seek to banish him from membership in the human family; ... he opposes any social philosophy which would regard man as a mere chattel in commercial competition for profit, or would set him at the throat of his fellows in a blind, brutish class struggle for existence."

He enjoined the Catholic University to "give special attention to the sciences of civics, sociology and economics . . . evolve a constructive program of social action, fitted in its details to local needs, which will command the admiration and acceptance of all right-thinking men."

Last week in Vatican City the 81-year-old Pope suffered three heart attacks, was given Extreme Unction, then rallied and was announced ready to resume his "normal" life. He was not to die, however, before the U. S. hierarchy, acting upon his charge, aligned the Catholic Church as a supporter of U. S. democracy.

In a pastoral letter issued over the signature of Philadelphia's Dennis Cardinal Dougherty, the U. S. bishops declared: "His Holiness calls us to the defense of our democratic government, framed in a Constitution that safeguards the inalienable rights of man. . . . This charge solemnly approves the American hierarchy's traditional position of unswerving allegiance to our free American institutions." The pastoral announced that Catholic University will at once compile Catholic textbooks to teach democracy at "all educational levels"--to 3,000,000 pupils in 10,000 Catholic schools, high schools and colleges.

Before falling ill last week the Pope turned his attention to another democratic nation, England. He appointed Monsignor William Godfrey, rector of the English College in Rome, to be Apostolic Delegate in Great Britain--the first representative of the Pope in Protestant Great Britain since the 16th Century. Not a diplomatic official like a Papal Nuncio, an Apostolic Delegate acts as liaison between the Vatican and the Catholic hierarchy of a nation. Monsignor Godfrey will have access to the British Foreign Office, may well be able to report to the Pope, at firsthand, on Britain's dealings with Germany, now the chief Catholic sore spot in Europe.

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