The Pope and Mussolini (87 page)

17.
ASV, AESI, pos. 1054, fasc. 727, f. 48r, 6 settembre 1938, Consegnato dal P. Tacchi Venturi per riferire al S. Padre, 6 settembre 1938; ibid., f. 46r, 7 settembre 1938, Segreteria di Stato di Sua Santità, 7 settembre 1938.

18.
The Church, the pope added, teaches that both Christians and Jews are descended from the seed of Abraham, and that Abraham was the patriarch of all. The pope gave his instructions through Cardinal Pacelli. The page is handwritten by Pacelli, of the sort found in the notes of his audiences with the pope, but it is not collected with the rest of the secretary of state’s notes. ASV, AESI, pos. 1054, fasc. 727, f. 45r, “Udienza del 9 settembre 1938.” The label of the Vatican folder containing the record of these talks is revealing. Although the pope may have seen the question differently, under Pacelli the secretary of state office remained clear about its focus: “Directives to Father Tacchi Venturi for Negotiations with the Head of Government About the Racist Question. Question of Jews who Converted to Catholicism.” ASV, AESI, pos. 1054, fasc. 727, f. 40r, settembre 1938. On the same day as Tacchi Venturi met with Mussolini to discuss the racial laws, Pignatti met with Pacelli. They discussed the pope’s continuing complaints about PNF sponsorship of public dances in which working-class girls took part. ASMAE, APSS, b. 42, Pignatti a Starace, 10 settembre 1938.

19.
ASV, AESI, pos. 1054, fasc. 727, ff. 41r, 43r, 20 settembre 1938.

20.
Ibid., fasc. 732, ff. 48r–48v, Cardinal Fossati, arcivescovo di Torino, a Domenico Tardini, 28 settembre 1938; ibid., f. 49r, Tardini a Fossati, 1 ottobre 1938; Tardini a Tacchi Venturi, 1 ottobre 1938.

21.
Primo Levi,
The Periodic Table
, quoted by Cavarocchi and Minerbi 1999, p. 483.

22.
The reference is to the diary of Sylvia Lombroso (Nidam-Orvieto 2005), p. 162.

23.
Ibid., pp. 162–63.

24.
Lamb 1997, p. 221.

25.
André François-Poncet, the French ambassador to Berlin, left an excellent description of the meeting; quoted by De Felice (1981, p. 528). Édouard Daladier was the French representative at the conference.

26.
Lamb 1997, figs. 12–13; Navarra 2004, p. 38. Navarra apparently thought it wise not to mention the fact that notwithstanding their umbrellas, the British had founded a rather substantial empire.

27.
“Mentre Milioni,” 29 settembre 1938,
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/speeches/documents/hf_p-xi_spe_19380929_mentre-milioni_it.html
. Pius XI was not pleased with the Munich agreement. He complained to Charles-Roux about the lack of French support for Czechoslovakia and the shame of France and Britain agreeing to the country’s dismemberment without allowing it any representation at the negotiating table. At an audience on September 30, the pope shared this view with two Italian senators, who let Mussolini know. The Duce erupted in anger. The Holy Father, he remarked, had apparently not stopped shooting himself in the foot. MAESS, vol. 38, 209–10, Charles-Roux, 5 octobre 1938.

28.
Milza 2000, pp. 762–63, Rauscher 2004, pp. 261–64; Grandi 1985, pp. 452–53; De Felice 1981, p. 530. A number of recent works have challenged the notion that the racial laws were unpopular in Italy and led to a fall in support for the regime: Rigano 2008; Pavan 2010; Israel 2010. Miccoli (2004, p. 25) denies that the racial laws undermined Italian Catholic support for Mussolini and dates decline of Catholic support from 1942, when the war began to go badly.

29.
Kershaw 2000, p. 123.

30.
ASV, AESS, pos. 560, fasc. 592, f. 98v, Tardini, diario, 2 ottobre 1938. Schuster was but one of many, many priests who were praising Mussolini as the man sent by God to save Italy and Europe. A particularly fulsome ode to Mussolini as the new Moses was the sermon given by the archpriest of the cathedral of Campobasso on October 7. Piccardi 1995, pp. 218–20.

31.
Bottai 2001, p. 136. Bottai, whose diary records Mussolini’s remarks, was an enthusiastic proponent of the racial laws.

32.
Quoted in Petacci 2010, p. 421.

33.
CC 1938 IV, pp. 269–71.

34.
DDI, series 8, vol. 10, n. 238, l’incaricato d’affari presso la Santa Sede, Fecia di Cossato, al ministro degli affari esteri, Ciano, 7 ottobre 1938.

35.
ASV, AESI, pos. 1063, fasc. 755, ff. 10r, 12r, 7 ottobre 1938.

36.
Quoted in Guasco 2010, pp. 94–95.

37.
DDI, series 8, vol. 10, n. 252, l’incaricato d’affari presso la Santa Sede, Fecia di Cossato, al ministro degli affari esteri, Ciano, 10 ottobre 1938.

38.
ASMAE, AISS, b. 102, l’incaricato d’affari presso la Santa Sede, Fecia di Cossato, al ministro degli affari esteri, Ciano, 11 ottobre 1938. In citing his previous reports informing Ciano of the Jesuits’ strong support for the government’s anti-Semitic campaign, Cossato mentions his reports of August 5 and 17. These dates are significant because during those weeks Mussolini was formulating the first anti-Jewish laws and was eager to have assurance that the Church would support his anti-Jewish campaign.

39.
ASV, ANI, pos. 24, fasc. 14, ff. 160r–163r, Borgongini a Pacelli, 10 ottobre 1938. A note in the files of the Vatican secretary of state, dated October 7, 1938, similarly makes reference to the August 17 agreement reached by Mussolini and Tacchi Venturi, treating it as in effect. ASV, AESI, pos. 1060, fasc. 747, f. 6r.

40.
Tacchi Venturi a Monsignor A. Bernareggi, vescovo di Bergamo, 11 ottobre 1938, published in Presenti 1979, p. 562.

41.
“All this,” Tacchi Venturi informed the pope the next day, ever eager to build up the Duce in the pope’s eyes, “he told me showing how sorry he was that the question had ended up taking so long and wanting to proceed with maximum goodwill.” ASV, AESI, pos. 1060, fasc. 747, f. 4r, Tacchi Venturi a Pio XI, 11 ottobre 1938.

42.
ASV, AESS, pos. 560, fasc. 592, f. 107r, 10 ottobre 1938. The pope instructed Tardini to announce the replacement of the Bergamo party head and of the Catholic Action board members quickly. When Tardini suggested Saturday the fifteenth, the pope replied, “No, that’s too late! And it is a weekend. Do everything on Friday the fourteenth.” ASV, AESS, pos. 560, fasc. 592, ff. 107v–108r, 11 ottobre 1938. The bishop of Bergamo was not pleased about removing four of the most valuable and respected members of his Catholic Action board. In an effort to console him, Tacchi Venturi told the bishop that as good Catholics, the men would certainly want to do whatever most benefited Catholic Action. “I also think,” he added, “that a little changing of the guard (to use the Fascist terminology) never hurt any institution.” Tacchi Venturi a Monsignor A. Bernareggi, vescovo di Bergamo, 11 ottobre 1938, in Presenti 1979, p. 562.

43.
ASV, AESI, pos. 1060, pos. 747, f. 17r, l’incaricato d’affari presso la Santa Sede, Conte Carlo Fecia di Cossato, consigliere dell’ambasciata d’Italia presso la Santa Sede, a Domenico Tardini, 12 ottobre 1938; ibid., 18r–19r, Tardini a Fecia di Cossato, 13 ottobre 1938; ASV, AESS, pos. 560, fasc. 592, f. 108v, 12 ottobre 1938.

44.
From Tardini’s notes. ASV, AESS, pos. 560, fasc. 592, f. 106r, Tardini, 9 ottobre 1938. The pope’s phrase is loosely translated here, with thanks to Lesley Riva. The Italian is: “
Roba da frati! È proprio vero che: cappuccio e cotta sempre borbotta!
”

45.
ASV, AESS, pos. 560, fasc. 592, f. 109r, 14 ottobre 1938.

46.
Ibid., f. 112r, 15 ottobre 1938.

47.
Ibid., f. 114r, 16 ottobre 1938.

CHAPTER 25: THE FINAL BATTLE

1.
Passelcq and Suchecky 1997, p. 69.

2.
ASMAE, APSS, b. 39, fasc. 1, Cosmelli, R. Ambasciata Washington, a Ciano, “Stati Uniti e Cattolicesimo,” 20 ottobre 1938. Discussed further in Kertzer and Visani 2012.

3.
Baruch, a former Wall Street tycoon, was at the time a philanthropist and part of Franklin Roosevelt’s “brain trust” of advisers.

4.
The U.S. ambassador reported all this to Washington, adding that police officers in Trieste had prevented people there from celebrating Columbus Day. He suspected they had gotten their orders from Rome, motivated by the belief that Columbus was a Jew, and as a way of signaling Mussolini’s displeasure at the U.S. government’s protests over the racial laws. NARA, M1423, reel 12, Phillips to U.S. secretary of state, “Anti-Jewish measures in Italy,” n. 1120, October 21, 1938.

5.
ASV, AESS, pos. 560, fasc. 592, f. 117r, Tardini notes, 19 ottobre 1938. “The official memorandum is necessary,” wrote Tardini, “to ensure there is evidence that the Holy See warned the Italian government of the consequences of its new laws.” ASV, AESI, pos. 1063, fasc. 755, f. 15r, Tardini appunti, 19 ottobre 1938.

6.
Borgongini’s comments were made to Tardini. ASV, AESS pos. 560, fasc. 592, ff. 119r–119v, Tardini appunti, 20 ottobre 1938.

7.
ASV, AESI, pos. 1063, fasc. 755, ff. 20r–21r, Borgongini, Nunziatura Apostolica d’Italia, “Progetto di appunto,” n. 6480, n.d.

8.
Here, in pencil, Tardini inserted “too” before “heterogeneous.”

9.
Borgongini was desperate to reach an agreement. If neither of these proposals were acceptable to the government, he added, the Vatican and the government would have to come to some other understanding before the new laws were announced. ASV, AESI, pos. 1063, fasc. 755, ff. 22r–23r, Borgongini, Nunziatura Apostolica d’Italia, “Progetto di appunto,” n. 6481, undated.

10.
Tardini has left two somewhat different handwritten accounts of this meeting: ASV, AESI, pos. 1063, fasc. 755, f. 36r, 23 ottobre 1938; AESS, pos. 560, fasc. 592, ff. 123v–125r, 23 ottobre 1938.

11.
ASV, AESI, pos. 560, fasc. 592, f. 125v, 23 ottobre 1938.

12.
Monsignor Francesco Bracci, the secretary of the Congregation of the Discipline of the Sacraments, was also present.

13.
Monsignor Alfredo Ottaviani, until 1935 substitute secretary of state and then assessor for the Holy Office, was also at the meeting. The men there decided that in any discussions with the government, three points had to be communicated: (1) Mixed marriages—whether between Catholics and non-Catholics, or between two Catholics of different races—were rare “and for the future the Holy Father has arranged to have them submitted to his review.” (2) The government should agree to recognize these rare marriages, if necessary using the route of royal dispensation. (3) In any case, the government should recognize that it would seriously offend religious sentiment—and here, when the pope reviewed the text, he added: “and natural law”—if it were to punish those who, for reasons of conscience, celebrated such marriages. ASV, AESI, pos. 1063, fasc.755, f. 40r, Tardini appunti, 23 ottobre 1938, followed by his minutes of the meeting on the same date: 41r–45r. On the pope’s approval of the plan, see ASV, AESI, pos. 1063, fasc. 755, ff, 49r–50r, Tardini appunti, 24 ottobre 1938.

14.
ASV, AESI, pos. 1063, fasc. 755, f. 53r, Tardini appunti, 25 ottobre 1938.

15.
Ibid., ff. 56r–59r, Tacchi Venturi a Mussolini, 26 ottobre 1938.

16.
Ibid., ff. 61r–64r, Adunanza presso l’E.mo Sig. Cardinale Jorio, 27 ottobre 1938. At his audience with the pope the next day, Tardini brought along data to show how few cases they were talking about. The previous year, he informed the pontiff, out of more than 377,000 marriages in Italy, only 61 involved a Church-approved marriage between a Catholic and a non-Catholic. Nor were there many more marriages involving converted Jews. Ibid., f. 72r, Tardini appunti, 28 ottobre 1938.

17.
Previously the Nazis had worried about the negative impact that such an announcement would have in the United States, but now the German foreign minister was less concerned: the recent crisis over the Sudetenland had revealed how strong the isolationists in the United States were. His one worry was that the announcement would provoke anger among America’s Jews, but “Jewish propaganda in America directed against Germany and Italy was strong only in the eastern part, while it was dwindling more and more in the western part of the United States. It was precisely this western part of the United States of America which exerted a dominating influence on foreign policy.” DGFP, series D, vol. 4, n. 400, “Conversation between the Reich foreign minister, Herr von Ribbentrop, and the Italian foreign minister, Count Ciano,” Rome, October 28, 1938.