Inside the Vatican

I've just finished reading Inside the Vatican of Pius XII, a memoir of Charles Tittman who was U.S. charge d'affaires to the Holy See and lived in the Vatican from the entry of the U.S. in World War II until June 1944.

It's an interesting read - a combination of Tittman's memoir with notes by his son - who was a teenager at the time. The book focuses on three themes: 1) efforts by the Allies to persuade Pius to denounce Nazi atrocities, including the Holocaust; 2) the efforts of Pius to prevent Allied bombing of Rome, and 3) Vatican views of the Soviet Union and the U.S. alliance with Stalin.

On the first issue, Tittmann notes that Allied efforts eventually produced a statement from the Pope referring to "the hundreds of thousands who, through no fault of their own, and solely because of their nation or race, have been condemned to death or progressive wasting away."

Tittmann is clearly sympathetic to Pius on this issue. He states that "[t]here were absolutely no signs that the Pope was pro-Fascist or pro-Nazi. In fact, the opposite seemed more the case." And in September 1942, Tittmann prepared a memorandum summarizing the reasons for the Vatican's reluctance to condemn Nazi atrocities. Among these were that the Pope would also have to condemn "Russian cruelties" if he denounced Nazi atrocities and that the Vatican lacked the resources to assemble "supporting evidence of reported violations in order to justify condemnatory action . . .."

Tittmann also comments that "[w]hen members of the hierarchy speak out on violations, as they have done in Germany and other countries, it should be realized that it is the voice of the Pope speaking and that this should be sufficient." Although many bishops did courageously speak out, others provided explicit or implicit support for the Nazis or collaborator regimes. Did the latter group also speak for the Pope?

Tittmann also notes that the "Holy See is firmly convinced that any public statement by the Pope condemning Nazi atrocities in Nazi-occupied Europe, far from doing any good, would greatly worsen the already precarious situation of Catholics obliged to reside in those areas."

On the issue of the Soviet Union, Tittmann notes that an encyclical of Pope Pius XI - Divini Redemptoris - had unequivocally barred Catholics from any cooperation with communism. "Communism is intrinsically wrong, and no one who would save Christian Civilization may collaborate with it in any undertaking whatsoever."

This position posed problems for Roosevelt's efforts to win support to extend Lend-Lease aid to Russia after the Nazi invasion in June 1941. In a letter to Pius XII, seeking his support on this issue, Roosevelt stated that "[i]nsofar as I am informed, churches in Russia are open." Although the Vatican failed to accept this evident whitewash of Stalin's record on religious freedom, it did assist Roosevelt by arranging for Archbishop McNicholas of Cincinnati to issue a pastoral letter "interpreting the Encyclical . . . as desired by President Roosevelt."

Roosevelt's statements regarding religious freedom in Russia are consistent with the type of propaganda used to marshall support for the alliance with Stalin. The film Mission to Mosocow - based on the experiences of former Amabassador Joseph Davies - featured a script which:

"wrote that the Soviet invasion of Finland and Poland after the 1939 Nonaggression pact was only "self-defense", blamed the purge trials on traitors and Trotskyite 5th columnists, ignored the ideological differences between Stalin and Trotsky, and romanticized Russian leaders and the happy Russian people learning as modern consumers in contrast to the regimented Germans . . .."

The book by Davies, published in 1941, is widely available through used bookstores and makes for interesting reading today. The film, first screened by Roosevelt in the White House, was so popular that it led Benny Goodman to issue a song with the same title.