The Pope and Mussolini (80 page)

22.
ACS, MI, PS, Polizia Politica, b. 210, informatore n. 40, Roma, 12 settembre 1933. The next year, the “noted Vatican informer” would remark, as further evidence of the pope’s unpopularity in Rome, that being “unsentimental,” he almost never did anything to show concern for prelates he knew to be sick. ACS, MCPG, b. 158, luglio 1934.

23.
According to an informant’s report, it was Pacelli who had persuaded the pope to promote the wayward monsignor. ACS, MI, PS, Polizia Politica, b. 210, informatore n. 40, Città del Vaticano, 12 agosto 1934.

24.
ACS, MI, PS, Polizia Politica, b. 210, informatore n. 390, Milano, 15 ottobre 1934.

25.
FRSCE, n. 350, Osborne to Halifax, June 21, 1938.

26.
The pope made the suggestion through his nuncio. In a December 28 letter to Mussolini, Pignatti reported that in his recent visit to the Vatican secretary of state office, he had been assured that the Vatican was doing all it could to encourage the effort by the Church in Ireland and the United States to lobby in favor of Italy in the Ethiopian war. One of the Vatican officials—most likely Pizzardo—explained that one reason most Irish supported Mussolini in the Ethiopian war was their “sense of contrast to the English Protestant propaganda” against the war. ASMAE, AISS, b. 56, Pignatti al ministro degli affari esteri, “Cattolici in Irlanda Stati Uniti e Canadà,” n. 8048/126.

27.
Mussolini also asked Borgongini to tell the pope that the Freemasons had become the Duce’s sworn enemies, angry at him for destroying their lodges and for bringing about Conciliation with the Church. “They want revenge,” said Mussolini, “first against me, so they can then turn on the Church.” But “they will not win.” ASV, AESI, pos. 967, vol. 2, ff. 343r–346r, Borgongini, “Relazione dell’udienza avuta con S.E. Il Capo del Governo,” 3 gennaio 1936.

28.
“Coughlin Berates League of Nations,”
Ludington Daily News
, November 25, 1935, p. 1. Mussolini was notified of Coughlin’s value and more generally of the positive role that Catholics in the United States were playing in opposing the sanctions, in mid-November 1935 by a letter from the president of the Unione Italiana d’America. ACS, MCPR, b. 21, Casagrande di Villaviera, New York, a Dino Alfieri, 15 novembre 1935.

29.
In his review of George Seldes’s highly critical biography of Mussolini,
Sawdust Caesar
, Gerard Francis Yates concluded: “It should be read by all those who, through mental sluggishness or disgust at the japery of our parliamentarians, sigh for a dictatorship (whether Fascist or proletarian) as a cure for our ills.”
America
54, n. 16, (January 25, 1936), p. 382.

30.
“New Jesuit Head Is a Russian Pole,” NYT, February 12, 1915, p. 11; Pagano 2009, pp. 401–2n.

31.
Von Bülow 2007, pp. 279–80. Another indication of the general view of the great power of the head of the Jesuit order is the fact the Jesuit superior general was commonly termed the “black pope,” referring both to the simple black Jesuit habit and to the contrast—at least in the minds of those having a more conspiratorial bent—between the pure white pope with the scheming black pope.

32.
Muñoz 1942, pp. 5–6.

33.
Recall that Ledóchowski had made his displeasure known to the
Civiltà cattolica
editor Enrico Rosa in October 1922, when Rosa had written an article attacking Fascism. In the summer of 1929, in the immediate aftermath of the Lateran Accords, when the pope was upset with Mussolini, the Jesuit general was again angry at Rosa for encouraging the pope’s criticism. According to a secret police report, he sent Rosa off to a Church congress in Spain in an effort to get him out of the way and allow time for the pope to cool down. ASMAE, AISS, b. 2, “Roma, 12 agosto 1929,” and “Roma, 7 agosto 1929.”

34.
The man who was fired at Mussolini’s request, Wilfrid Parsons, S.J., had been editor of the Jesuit weekly for eleven years. He was a bitter foe of Charles Coughlin. Parsons was replaced by Francis Talbot, S.J., a Coughlin supporter and Fascist booster. Gallagher 2012.

35.
Ledóchowski went on to warn that Anthony Eden, the British foreign minister, was “in the hands of the Jews and especially in those of the Rothschilds.” ASMAE, AISS, b. 102. A copy of the same report, signed by Pignatti, is found at ASMAE, APSS, b. 30. Following the opening ceremony for the world Catholic press exposition in the Vatican on May 12, 1936, Pignatti ran into Ledóchowski, who was delighted because in his remarks the pope had stressed the Communist threat. “Father Ledóchowski,” reported Pignatti, “sees Judaism, allied with Bolshevism, to be the origin of all current evils and a great danger for our civilization.” ASMAE, APSS, b. 33, fasc. 1, 13 maggio 1936.

36.
De Felice 1974, p. 701.

37.
Ventresca 2013, p. 104.

38.
Mockler 2003, pp. 74–85.

39.
Brendon 2000, p. 324. On February 7 Borgongini found the Duce in a “black mood,” furious with France. Yes, England, too, was Italy’s enemy, he said, but France was worse, for France had betrayed them. Following the left’s recent electoral victory, the new French foreign ministry “was put together by the masons in the lodge of that pig Mandel, who, to avoid calling himself Jereboam de Rothschild, calls himself Mandel. But he is a Jew, sold to England, a sworn enemy of Italy.” The Duce ranted on, “The government is made up of fourteen masons and three Jews. The Jewish Masonry—who, according to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, ‘corrupt even the dogs,’ that is, the Catholics—have succeeded in turning the French into morons.” ASV, ANI, pos. 23, fasc. 8, ff. 4r–8r.

40.
DDF, series 2, vol. 1, n. 447, Charles-Roux à Flandin, 17 mars 1936.

41.
Milza 2000, pp. 726–27. The most fascist of Fascists, and scourge of the Vatican, Roberto Farinacci was granted his wish of joining the Italian air forces in Ethiopia. Arriving in February, he did not last long. In April he took a break from bombing defenseless tribesmen and went fishing in a small lake. Lacking fishing gear, he and his comrades decided to use their hand grenades. Perhaps distracted by the banter with his mates, he held on to a grenade too long, and it blew up in his hand. Farinacci returned to Italy some weeks later to a hero’s welcome and got a fitting for his new metal appendage. The government put out the story that the courageous leader had been wounded during a military exercise. Fornari 1971, p. 161; Bottai 2001, p. 102.

42.
Mockler 2003, pp. 133–42.

43.
Later that week Charles-Roux reported that Tacchi Venturi was an “
ami personnel
,” a personal friend, of the dictator. DDF, series 2, vol. 2, n. 185, Charles-Roux à Flandrin, 8 mai 1936.

44.
ACS, CR, b. 68, Tacchi Venturi a Mussolini, Roma, 6 maggio 1936.

45.
Ojetti 1939, pp. 116–20; Morgan 1941, pp. 188–91.

46.
DDF, series 2, vol. 2, n. 287, Chambrun à Delbos, 10 juin 1936.

47.
“Pope Gives Up All Exercise as 80th Year Approaches,” and “Vatican Easter Quietest in Years,” BG, April 13, 1936, p. 2.

48.
ASMAE, APSS, b. 31, Mussolini a Ambasciata presso la Santa Sede, Roma, telegramma in partenza, 14 maggio 1936.

49.
ASV, AESS, pos. 430b, fasc. 363, f. 57, “Il Ministro d’Inghilterra,” 15 maggio 1936.

50.
DDI, series 8, vol. 4, n. 78, Pignatti a Mussolini, 19 maggio 1936. Pignatti concludes: “I will also keep an eye on the Holy See’s actions to be able, if need be, to direct them in conformity with the information and instructions of the Royal Minister.” DDF, series 2, vol. 2, n. 287, Chambrun à Delbos, ministre des affaires etrangères, 10 juin 1936.

51.
De Felice 1974, pp. 756–7.

52.
DDI, series 8, vol. 4, n. 40, Pignatti a Mussolini, 14 maggio 1936.

53.
Navarra 2004, p. 86.

54.
Quoted in De Felice 1974, p. 759.

55.
The dictator was also becoming ever more cynical. Anyone or anything that stood in his way had to be overcome. Italians, the Duce told a foreign interviewer in May 1936, needed music and flags to stir them. “The crowd is disorganized and dispersed like a herd of animals, until it is disciplined and guided,” he said, using one of his favorite images. “It does not need to know, it needs faith, for it is faith that moves mountains.… The truth is, the tendency of our modern men to believe is absolutely incredible!” Quoted in De Felice 1974, p. 799.

56.
Galeotti 2000, pp. 29–30.

CHAPTER 18: DREAMS OF GLORY

1.
Chiron 2006, p. 371.

2.
Quoted by Pacelli in his notebook, ASV, AESS, pos. 430a, fasc. 352, f. 81, 30 dicembre 1935. On the buzzer, see Charles-Roux 1947, p. 13.

3.
DGFP, C 4b, n. 482, Ambassador Bergen to Foreign Minister Neurath, Rome, January 4, 1936. Because Pacelli was eager to avoid angering Hitler, he always dealt solicitously with the German ambassador. But to others, he occasionally let his anger show. In 1936 Anton Mussert, head of the Dutch Nazi party, came to see him and, in an attempt to win his favor, told him that two forces were effectively opposing the advance of Bolshevism in Europe: Mussolini and Hitler. Pacelli tore into him, saying curtly that while he shared his view of Mussolini, he did not share his admiration for Hitler. Later, simply in recounting this conversation, Pacelli became so heated that the veins bulged from his neck. DDI, series 8, vol. 4, n. 316, Pignatti a Ciano, 19 giugno 1936.

4.
DDF, series 2, vol. 3, n. 114, Charles-Roux à Delbos, ministre des affaires étrangères, 9 août 1936.

5.
By mid-August, in Madrid, those churches that had not been burned down or sacked were being occupied by “red militias.” Canosa 2009, pp. 63–69.

6.
Among other steps, the government introduced new public controls over Church property, evicted the Jesuits from the country, and ended the involvement of the religious orders in public education.

7.
Kent 1981, pp. 140–41.
L’Osservatore romano
published many articles lamenting the various elements of the anticlerical campaign in Spain.

8.
Acknowledging that “excesses” had occurred, the ambassador argued that in many cases rebel arms were being stored in churches and monasteries, and that the military revolt had left the government no choice but to arm the civilian population to defend itself, creating many of the conditions the cardinal was lamenting. ASV, AESS, pos. 340b, fasc. 363, f. 102, appunti di Pacelli,12 agosto 1936. See also Brendon 2000, pp. 374–75. A few days later Pacelli received a report from the nuncio in Madrid. No church was able to operate, and Republican forces occupied the archbishop’s headquarters, the seminary, and the presses of all the Catholic newspapers. The archbishop had fled to parts unknown, and priests had taken refuge in the homes of friends and relations, moving constantly “to avoid falling into the hands of the reds.” Many priests, deemed enemies of the people, had been brutally killed. Others had been jailed. The famous monument to the Sacred Heart of Jesus had been profaned and then destroyed. Those few private homes where mass was still secretly celebrated did so at great risk. ASV, AESE, pos. 889, fasc. 263, ff. 30r–32r, Silvio Sericano, Madrid, 20 agosto 1936.

9.
ASV, AESE, pos. 889, fasc. 264, ff. 74r–76r, Borgongini a Pacelli, 28 novembre 1936.

10.
De Felice 1981, pp. 358–89.

11.
De Felice 1981, pp. 390–91.

12.
In October the pope, looking tired and beaten down, told Charles-Roux he thought Mussolini was playing with fire in threatening to tie Italy’s fate to Germany’s in his game of brinksmanship with France and Britain. MAESS, 38, 28–34, Charles-Roux à Delbos, ministre des affaires étrangères, 22 octobre 1936.

13.
Micheler 2005, pp. 113–14. An angry Pacelli told the Italian ambassador that if the Jesuits were put on trial, the repercussions would be enormous and “all of Germany would be shaken.” DDI, series 8, vol. 4, n. 613, Pignatti a Ciano, 24 luglio 1936. The pope wanted Mussolini to intercede on behalf of the Jesuits. The day after their meeting Cardinal Pacelli called Pignatti to relay instructions he had just gotten from the pope: Mussolini was not to mention he was acting at the pope’s request. DDI, series 8, vol. 4, n. 636, Pignatti a Ciano, 27 luglio 1936. The next month, when the Italian ambassador in Berlin, on instructions from Rome, pleaded on behalf of both the Austrian nuns and the Jesuits, Pacelli expressed his thanks. DDI, series 8, vol. 5, n. 150, L’Incaricato d’affari presso la Santa Sede, Cassinis, a Ciano, 2 ottobre 1936.