POPE AND VATICAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24709, 8 October 1943, Page 4

POPE AND VATICAN

SETTIN G STATUS OF THE CITY The Vatican City, or Vatican State, which German paratroops are reported to have entered, covers less than a square mile of Rome and embraces the Basilica of St. Peter, its large colonnaded piazza or forecourt, the Vatican palaces, their associated buildings and the Vatican gardens. It has its own railway ! station, radio transmitter, printing plant, observatory and many of the appurtenances of a self-governing community, even including a small gaol, usually unoccupied. The city has existed as a sovereign State since the Lateran Treaty of 1929, between the then Pope, Pius XI., and the King of Italy, whereby the "Roman Question" was declared to have been finally and irrevocably settled. History of the Site The Vatican Hill was traditionally the site of the martyrdom of St. Peter in A.D.07, and of his tomb, over which the Emperor Constantino began the building of a basilica in 324, and from that time the Popes resided there. In the course of centuries the church and palace were several times sacked and devastated, notably in 1527 by troops of the Emperor Charles V. under the Constable of Bourbon. The foundation stone of the present St. Peter's was laid in 1506, as Constantino's church had become ruinous.

The immense building, designed in the main by Bramante and Michelangelo, was completed and consecrated in 1626, and the piazza, planned by Bernini, was finished in 1607. The palace buildings, which contain priceless artistic and literary treasures, are ot various dates.

The "Roman Question" goes back to more than a century ago, when the Pope was - sovereign ruler of States covering much of Central Italy. In IS4B Pius IX. placed himself outside the movement for Italian unity, which was carried on thereafter in opposition to the temporal power of tho Pope. When a republic was proclaimed in Borne by Mazzini in 1819. the Pope fled to Gaeta, but returned the following year after order had been restored by the French. A Voluntary Prisoner

Under Cavour, the Papal territory was reduced to a fifth oi' its former area in 1860, and in 1870 Rome was made the capital of Italy. Next year a "Guarantee Law" was passed, conferring on the Pope the rights and honours' of a sovereign and recognising the. exterritoriality of his palaces, but declaring them to he tlie property of the Italian State. Pius IX. repeatedly refused to recognise this declaration and ever after remained a voluntary prisoner in the Vatican. His successors took the same attitude until Mussolini entered upon negotiations with the Papal Secretary of State, Cardinal Gasparri, as a result of which the Pope was made temporal sovereign of his own tiny State, which was declared neutral and inviolable. The payment to the Pope of 1,750.000.000 lire (£19.000,000) in cash and Italian Government bonds formed part of the agreement. The Pope and Napoleon

The personal safety of Popes has been endangered and their personal freedom interfered with on more than one occasion in the long history of the Papacy. One instance occurred when Napoleon provoked differences with Pius VII. Negotiations for a concordat were proceeding unhappily when the Pope consented to go to Paris in 1804 and crowned Napoleon as Emperor of the French.

After making further demands. Napoleon occupied Rome in ISOB and annexed the Papal States. The Pope issued a bull of excommunication, whereupon he was taken as a prisoner to Savona, and then to Fontainebleau, where he remained until Napoleon's fall in 1814. He was obliged to flee from Rome during the Hundred Days, but returned when Napoleon's career closed.

CUSTODY OF CHILD AUCKLAND APPEAL CASE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Thursday The Court of Appeal to-day heard an appeal between Thomas Gordon Morrison, of Devon port, master mariner, and Veronica Ilatton Avery, of Auckland, married woman. The case concerns the custody of a child of the marriage, a boy aged 13. The parties have been separated since 1936, and were divorced in 1939 on the grounds of desertion by the husband. Both have since remarried. Mrs. Avery has had the custody-of the child under an order of the Magistrate's Court since 1936.

The husband made application to the Supreme Court in 1942 for the custody of the boy on the grounds that the welfare of the child required the father's custody, and filed affidavits alleging that Mrs. Avery had committed adultery, in the absence of her present husband overseas, and that she had been co-respondent in a divorce suit arisine out of the alleged adultery. These allegations were denied by Mrs. Avery. At the hearing of the application in December, 1912. Mr. Justice Fair made .'in interim order for custody to the father, with ample provision for access to the mother.

At a further hearing in June, after allegations had been made that the father had failed to comply with the Court order as to access, Mr. Justice Fair decided that, in view of all the circumstances, an order should be made for the custody to the mother, the father being allowed access at weekends.

The appeal is from this decision on the grounds that it was wrong in law and contrary to the facts.

WAR AMPUTEES CRITICISM OF PENSIONS Criticism of the new War Pensions .Act, as it affected war widows, was expressed by Mr. T. 0. Browne, chairman of the War Amputees' Association, at the quarterly meeting. He referred to the clause which provided that the widow of a pensioner suffering not less than 70 per cent disability on his death from any cause not attributable to war service might receive a pension as though death Mere due to consequences of war service.

That portion was all right, hut there was a bad sub-clause, Mr. Browne said. That provided that a pension should not be granted if the marriage took place after the date at which the pensioner was granted a permanent pension for disability at a rate not less than 70 per cent. Many of those cases would be amputees, and while the effect could well be discouraging to amputees marrying at all, it would also have the effect of penalising one section of women of high domestic worth. Many amputees had married nurses, and no men could have better or more self-sacrificing wives. Most amputees had to be given a good deal of attention by their wives in addition to the other family duties. It was most unjust that those women should bo penalised when their husbands died. If the intention of the Act was to obviate "death-bed" marriages a much fairer time limit could have been fixed. The matter was referred to the executive, together with questions of the length of proceedings before a grant made and tlio disadvantage of having only one Pension Board for the whole Dominion in view of the volume of business.