"In a World of Wolves"

Americans are prone to think of Europe resisting Communism like a hungry man resisting the temptation to steal: all he has to do is sit tight and remember what his parents taught him.

The truth is not so simple. There are many roads to power and Communists are willing to use them all. So resistance to the Reds takes many forms. Some of them are in the Communists' own conspiratorial patterns. A reporter tracing anti-Communist forces in Milan this month could begin in the Great Hall of Sacred Heart University, on the day of Milan's patron saint, and arrive by a fairly short line at a midnight session with machine guns of the Catholic underground.

"As a Priest . . ." Twelve thousand tough, enthusiastic young Milanese Catholics jammed into the Great Hall to honor St. Ambrose and hear militant words. Cried Monsignor Adelmo Bicchierai, spokesman of Cardinal Schuster, Archbishop of Milan: "The time has come to live again the days when the Lombards rose around Alberto di Giussano.* . . . We must be ready for victorious martyrdom. . . ."

The packed crowd cheered the Monsignor's final words--the message of Cardinal Schuster himself, who sat a few feet away tightly clasping his cross: "It is the duty of every right-thinking man to support the Government in its difficult struggle. . . . Let the Milanese be worthy followers of their patron St. Ambrose. May St. Ambrose protect Milan!"

But just how were these militants to assist the saint? To a questioner after the celebration Monsignor Bicchierai gave a poker-faced reply: "As a priest I must tell you that the crucifix and the rosary are the arms of Catholics." He paused and with a twinkle of black eyes and a deprecating spread of hands added: "What can I know of tear-gas bombs and machine guns?"

"Whose Wife Will Say . . ." A fair answer would be: probably a great deal. During Milan's disorders last month (when partisans occupied the local prefecture for a menacing 24 hours), some 200 men wearing civilian clothes bulging slightly at the hip pocket had kept guard in the streets near the Catholic daily newspaper Italia. They were members of north Italy's Catholic underground militia, Avanguardisti Cattolici--Catholic Vanguardists. Milanese called it simply "A.C."

So far only the silhouette of A.C. was visible, but it was a striking silhouette. Its leaders claimed that it was purely defensive, would never act save in self-defense or when called upon by the government. But Avanguardisti "eyes" were in every important factory, including the Communist-thronged industrial area of Sesto San Giovanni. Boasted an A.C. member: "No hostile truck leaves Sesto without the Catholics in Milan being alerted."

A.C.'s recruiting standards were exacting: physical fitness, sure loyalty and freedom from potentially embarrassing family obligations. One militia leader explained: "We don't want anyone who has children so small they can't be cared for by nuns and not big enough to take care of themselves. And we don't want anyone whose wife will say at a crucial moment, 'Carino, be very careful.' "

Knock on the Door. At midnight in his barracks-like study in Milan, Father "X" answered some questions about A.C., parried others. Was he the leader of the organization? Father X would neither admit nor deny it. Who was the leader? His deadpan reply: "I don't think it's generally known." Then he said:

"We think the myth of Red superiority is a bubble. They do, however, have two advantages over us. They have initiative . . . Hitler had it too . . . any burglar has . . . while we're bound to legal nonaggressive methods both morally and politically. As compensation, we have the advantage of people who are generally accepted as being in the right.

"The second advantage they have is their discipline--their own police and tribunals--which we obviously cannot impose. . . . But as a balance to this we have the army and the police on our side."

Numbers? The priest answered with a blend of military discretion and brass-hat vanity: "We have them in every important city in the north--Milan, Genoa, Turin. There we are roughly equal with the enemy. They outnumber us in Sesto San Giovanni. We outnumber them 3 to 1 at Varese . . . by 4 to 1 at Bergamo and 2 to 1 at Brescia. . . ." Milan's A.C. was not the only Catholic resistance group. In Rome (and elsewhere) Catholic youths organized and marched.

While Father X talked, there came a knock on the door. A young, weatherbeaten face peered in. "You have a package for me?" asked Father X. "All right, bring it in." A moment later three young men appeared, grunting under the weight of a long package. It was pointed at one end, wide and flat at the other. Toward the pointed end was a bulge--just where the feet of a machine gun fold up.

The young men heaved the package on a pile of similar ones stacked along the wall. When they had gone, Father X smiled. "You see," he said, "they have quite a military bearing. They are silent, strong, and don't question orders."

"Christ or Death." But for all Father X's show of confidence, he worried about the problem of rallying and holding his forces. To him the enemy was less Communism than apathy. So he worried even about symbols. "When the Catholic Vanguardists were first formed, in 1919," he said, "they had a black flag embroidered with a golden cross and the motto 'Christ or Death.' It was an exciting flag. But the Fascists got a monopoly on the color black; so we have to fall back on white--the color of innocence but hardly inspiring. . . . Those cursed Fascists!"

Last week as Milan waited, like every other key Italian city, to see where the Communists would strike next, the monsignor who had disclaimed knowledge of tear gas and machine guns summed up the stand of Milanese Catholics. Said Monsignor Bicchierai: "This is a kind of chess game. Right now we don't know what the next move will be--but it's theirs."

Meanwhile in Rome last week the national government got a new vice premier. He was Randolfo Pacciardi, handsome 48-year-old leader of the leftish Italian Republican Party. As organizer and commander of the anti-Fascist Garibaldi Brigade on the Loyalist side in the Spanish Civil War, Pacciardi had fought side by side with Communists. He had thought for a long time that it was possible to cooperate with Reds, but he had changed his mind. "Until now," he said, "we have made attempts at pacification . . . but we cannot continue merely reciting prayers in a world of wolves."

* Who, bearing the same crossed-shield device that Italy's Christian Democrats now use for their emblem, led the Lombard League victoriously against the troops of another foreign menace, Barbarossa, at Legnano in 1176.

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