THE VATICAN AND EUROPE
By BOSWORTH GOLDMAN
WHILE the storm clouds over Central Europe seem at the moment to be less threatening, no one could contend that they are altogether dispersed. Though the German nation may endorse Hitler's seizure of presi- dential power in the forthcoming popular vote, and though the Austrian internal situation may no longer be implicated by the presence of Italian troops on the Southern Frontier, the problems which gave rise to both these events still remain unsolved. It is of great interest, therefore, that the Vatican at this moment should have evolved for itself and Catholic Europe as a whole a possible solution. This involves a new alignment of the Germanic States and the linking of Bavaria and Baden with a united Austria-Hungary. Such a proposal obviously merits investigation as a factor bearing on the preservation of peace in Europe. WHILE the storm clouds over Central Europe seem at the moment to be less threatening, no one could contend that they are altogether dispersed. Though the German nation may endorse Hitler's seizure of presi- dential power in the forthcoming popular vote, and though the Austrian internal situation may no longer be implicated by the presence of Italian troops on the Southern Frontier, the problems which gave rise to both these events still remain unsolved. It is of great interest, therefore, that the Vatican at this moment should have evolved for itself and Catholic Europe as a whole a possible solution. This involves a new alignment of the Germanic States and the linking of Bavaria and Baden with a united Austria-Hungary. Such a proposal obviously merits investigation as a factor bearing on the preservation of peace in Europe.
The withdrawal of Germany from the League of Nations clearly lessened the League's influence as a factor in European peace. Subsequently the Nazi purge of June 30th and the assassination of Chancellor Dollfuss alienated from Germany itself the sympathy of those countries still working for peace outside the immediate framework of the League. But there is one circumstance as yet unconsidered : that South Germany at least is predominantly Catholic, and therefore has a bond not only with Austria on the ground of racial solidarity, but with all the Catholics of Europe. This bond is of particular importance in view of what appears now to be taking place : the greatest revival of the Vatican as a temporal power since the flood-tide of the Reformation undermined the pre-eminent position of the Catholic Faith.
Though it is generally contended that in the last fifty years Religion has been gradually ousted by the doctrine of Materialism, more acute observers have been astonished at the tenacity with which religious beliefs are still main- tained in the face of this advance. In this country the Oxford Movement eventually resulted in considerable accretions to Roman Catholicism, and in a country as remote as China for instance—according to so well- informed an authority as the late M. William Martin, formerly Foreign Editor of the Journal de Genive=the Catholic missionaries can still do much to simplify the application of Western ideas to an Asiatic culture. Nearer home, in France the religion abolished at the time of the Revolution is gaining ground and monasteries are being established once more. At the present time, though religion was officially disestablished in Spain in 1931, the editor of a Spanish atheist paper has just been sentenced to two months' imprisonment for " having scoffed at dogma " in an article attacking the. Virgin Birth. In view of this evidence of the persistence of religious fervour it may well be considered unwise of Hitler to have defied the Pope in the recent controversy over the German Church.
In 1929 the Pontiff, while accepting a financial loss in the Concordat with the Italian Government, gained a certain freedom as a temporal power. Even earlier the late Pope had made pronouncements on the subject of condoning war debts which might well have pIONT of universal benefit had they been accepted at the time, and during the War, when the Chancelleries of Europe were occupied with War Aims, the Vatican propounded Peace Aims founded on broad principles of social justice. Now the Pope suggests a solution to the Central European problem which might. at the same time satisfy many of the purely political and economic interests involved and cannot therefore be discarded as being merely a subtle intrigue to lead the world back to Rome.
The Papal plan envisages the establishment of a loose conglomeration of Austria, Ilungary, Bavaria, and Baden as a single unit as far as finance and foreign policy are concerned, while Protestant Prussia and the other North German States are left to stew in the unsavoury juice which Herr Hitler is cooking. In addition the false economic premises on which the Nazi State is based must lead, in the Vatican's opinion, to its eventual downfall, and with this in view suitable Catholic propagandists to popularize the Papal plan would be trained. As an example of the thoroughness with which the Pope is capable of carrying out such preparations we have only to consider the measures which are being taken to instruct Jesuits in the Greek rites in anticipation of a similar collapse in Soviet Russia.
An examination of the Central European population from the standpoint of religious division is extremely illuminating. The percentage of Catholics in the various European States which would be affected by this plan is as follows : Poland 75 per cent., Austria 94 per cent., Hungary 65 per cent., Yugo-Slavia 86 per cent. (including 48 per cent. of the Serbian Orthodox), Czecho-Slovakia 88 per cent., Bavaria 70 per cent., Baden 67 per cent. Since Germany as a whole is only 32 per cent. Catholic, it can be seen that in general terms it is accurate to say that only South Germany is predominantly Catholic. The leading figure on the German side of the border in this ambitious scheme is said to be General Von Epp, the Governor of Bavaria. Therefore obviously the plan is assured of influential support throughout Bavaria at least. If the plan ever reached fruition Nazi and Protestant North Germany would not only be faced with a more prosperous rival to the South but would also be ringed around by those States which would favour their new Catholic neighbour.
The plan, moreover, would have the support of various potent influences far removed from the purely religious issue. In Germany itself there is a powerful steel group opposed to the Thyssen interest which controls, through Herr Apold—now under arrest as a Nazi—the Austrian Alpine Montan Company. The Thyssen group is known to have taken part in the recent attempt to set up a Nazi State in Austria and the second group will clearly have gained in influence by the failure of the coup. Now they see in this new plan a way of " downing " the Thyssen interest for ever. Further, it is said that the anti- Thyssen group has considerable support in France—not only financial, but on general anti-Nazi grounds. Important also to the plan is the fact that those men in Austria and Hungary who remember their countries' proud position on the pre-War stage see that by this plan they would once more hold the balance between Italy and Germany. And of course those who supported the original Anschluss would see in the new plan many of the advantages which they appreciated in the former one. Finally Italy, who is anxious that a united Austria- Hungary should stand between herself and Germany, might achieve this result through the new Papal plan without the political odium which would accrue from a Hapsburg restoration.
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