POPE’S POSITION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20602, 1 November 1941, Page 9

POPE’S POSITION

RESIDENCE IN ROME SUGGESTED DEPARTURE LONDON. Oct. 22. Religion, which so far has played but little part in this war, is producing some embarrassment internationally. Simultaneously with the announcement that the Pope may shortly leave the Vatican comes a statement by M. Lozovsky, the Soviet spokesman, replying to President Roosevelt’s overtures for a definition of religious freedom in Russia. The question of the Pope’s residence as a neutral and as the head of Roman Catholicism is an embarrassment to the nations now at war

with Italy, particularly regarding aerial bombing. It is suggested that the Pope may believe that Mussolini is sheltering behind the Roman Catholic Church, because as long as the Pope stays in Rome the Italian war administration feels no fear of interference by the Royal Air Force. If the Pope leaves Rome he could go to Castle Ganflolio, his summer residence. Bid By Hitler Another development associated with Rome is a further bid by Hitler to win over the Vatican to his “holy crusade” against Russia, but, like its two previous efforts, it failed. The German Foreign Minister, Herr von Ribbentrop, approached the Papal Nuncio in Berlin, but the answer was a blank refusal even to communicate it to Rome. The sequel is the renewal of the bitter German press attacks on the Vatican. The American overtures to the Soviet, which were voiced by the United States leader at the Moscow discussions, Mr. Averill Harriman, it is now disclosed, are not the first which the United States has made. They are believed to have been mentioned to the Pope by President Roosevelts’ special envoy to the Vatican, Mr. Myron C. Taylor. M. Lozovsky’s official statement, which attempts to clean up misconceptions, was: “In the Soviet Union, the churches are separated from the State. This means that the State does not give any priority to this or that religion. Roosevelt’s Judgment “President Roosvelt’s judgment of the basic principles of the Constitution of the Soviet Union, so far as they concern the freedom and exercise of religion by Soviet citizens, is correct. I observe that many of those raising the problem of religion in the U.S.S.R. are people criticising the President’s policies. They are proGerman.” The president of the Supreme Soviet Council of the U.S.S.R., M. Kalinin, at a press conference with foreign correspondents, said it was not the policy of the Soviet to interfere with religious worship, which was considered the personal affair of every Soviet citi?.en. The Soviet allowed complete freedom of worship, and churches were never interfered with unless they espoused the fight against Russia. /