Papal Prisoners' Post

Father O'Toole climbed the tenement steps and knocked. "Mrs. Samkolsky?" he asked. The woman nodded. "I have a message here about your son, Benjamin. He is a prisoner of war in Italy." The door was flung wide. "Oh," gasped Mrs. Samkolsky taking the envelope, "we thought he was dead. Oh, thank God! Yetta! Yetta! Come here! Benny is safe!"

Up and down the U.S. last week, in large cities and small towns, many a Roman Catholic priest mailed or took similar tidings to anxious families of men missing in action. Sample message: "The Apostolic Delegate of the Holy See has been requested by radiogram from the Cardinal Secretary of State, to inform the John A. Doe family that Corporal John B. Doe is a prisoner of war in Camp 8 in. . . ."

Some of the messages were to Catholics, but far more to Protestants, Jews, or people of no faith at all, for the Vatican's War Prisoner Information Bureau operates regardless of creed. Its information sometimes precedes by several weeks official Army notification.

Set up after the war's outbreak, the bureau is located at the Vatican's Secretariat of State. There Russian-born Bishop Alexander Evreinoff supervises the staff which transmits messages for prisoners of war, civilian internees and residents of belligerent countries. To & from the U.S. alone have passed 80,000 messages in the past two months. To New Yorkers they come at the rate of 1,500 a month.

Only notifications of prisoners' whereabouts are sent by radiogram. Messages between prisoners and families go by ordinary post. A member of the family may reply through the Vatican by using a special form. These messages must contain only family chitchat, cannot exceed 25 words, must not mention military topics, weather, geographical locations. Incoming & outgoing messages clear through local diocesan offices, enter or leave the country by Washington's Apostolic Delegation. There, under the supervision of Archbishop Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, ten to 24 seminarians are on duty to receive and dispatch the communications. All messages pass through censorship.

Compared with the International Red Cross, which can visit camps in occupied lands and has a staff of some 5,000 persons in Geneva alone, the Vatican's place in the work of communication with prisoners of war is small. Bulk of its information concerns prisoners held in Italy.

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