CHRISTIANITY AND COMMUNISM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our " News of the Week " paragraphs: Signed Lenin are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must be accompanied by the name and address of the author, which will be treated as confidential.—Ed. THE SPECTATOR.] [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. Keith Toms challenges my statement that it is false to say that the Catholic Church in repudiating Communism is taking up a Fascist attitude. He argues that the Church is co-operating with Fascism because the Pope condoned the Abyssinian adventhre and so recognised the Italian " God- State " ; and secondly, because the Church wishes to ally itself with the German National-Socialist State. His evidence for this latter is that " it was lately stated in The Times that the Catholic Churches (sic) in Germany were anxious to come to terms with the secular authorities." To take this latter first, Mr. Toms should know that a Concordat between the Vatican and Germany was signed in 1933, which gave that minimum freedom of which I wrote in my article. He should know also that a Concordat is not a political alliance but a contract which allows to the Church on its side liberty of religious worship. This Concordat has not been respected as it should have been by the Nazi Government, and the action of the German Bishops, as reported by The Times, refers to their attempt to persuade that Government to carry out its contract. I ought not to have to explain this to Mr. Toms. No one should write on the relations of the Church with Germany without an elementary knowledge of the facts. He will be sure to blunder if he does not make mischief.
The rights and wrongs of the Abyssinian adventure, of which Mr. Toms writes with such assurance, might prove to be a red herring, and so I will not discuss this subject. Your readers may note, however, the curious logic which proves that aggressive or imperialist wars are engineered only by Fascist States. I cannot hope to persuade Mr. Toms that the Vatican is not now in Rome but in the Vatican City and that there are documents easily accessible which he ought to have read before writing opinions out of his own head.. But your readers have a right to know that the Pope instead of recog- nising the Sanctity of Mussolini's rights in Abyssinia " explicitly refused to pronounce on the question, saying that he was not the court to which appeal was made. This statement was made on August 27th, 1935. This attitude was in keeping with Article 24 of the Lateran Treaty of 1929.
The Holy See . . . desires to remain and will remain ex- traneous to all temporal disputes between States and to international congresses assembled for that purpose, unless the contending parties join together in an appeal to its mission of peace." Nor did the Pope condone the Abyssinian war after its conclusion. Even Miss Rose Macaulay, whom I am sorry to introduce into this galore, is mistaken, I think, in her interpretation of the well-known words of the Pope spoken on May 12th of this year. He spoke of the Italians as a "great and good people." It has escaped notice that in the same speech he speaks both of Russia and Germany as " a great country and a great people," and he makes it clear that the Church will not condone any action of any State which trespasses on the rights of Christianity. The attitude of the Pope to Fascism is also laid down quite definitely in the Encyclical, Non Abbiamo Bisogno, of 1931. Speaking of the extreme form of the Nationalist State, he says that " to plan and to promote such-a monopoly . . . amounts to a real and true hindering of the young from going to Jesus Christ. . . .." These last words are almost identical with those which .I used in my article,. and, nevertheless, Mr. Toms tells me that the Pope's attitude is far different from what I claimed it to be. Moreover, despite the courage of the Pope. in thus speaking out, Mr. Toms is not ashamed to sneer at him for doing in Rome what Mussolini does. .
I have written this for the readers of The Spectator because.
Mr. Toms does not apparently want to look at evidence before writing.... He: praises the Maria Monk, Pope Joan, Englishmen-have-tails type of mind shown by Captain Powell. Far more serious .is the quotation which Dr. Inge. has -sent concerning the sufferings of Protestants . in. Spain. I would not be an enemy of Dr. Inge, as some Communists have .'iown themselves to be in your columns, but I wish, as they-
have wished, that he world be sure of the truth of his evidence. As the charge in the quotation is so serious I.ammaking every attempt to find out the truth of it, and if I am successful, with your indulgence, I shall communicate it to you.—Yours,
Campion. Hall, Oa ford,
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