ENGINEER’S SON

Southland Times, Issue 23740, 11 February 1939, Page 7

ENGINEER’S SON

CAREER OF ACHILLE RATTI THE POPE AS A DIPLOMAT Achille Ratti, who became Pope Pius XI, was born at Desio, near Milan, on March 31, 1857, the son of an engineer. Under the influence of his uncle, Archpriest Ratti, and of his pious mother, he decided to enter the Church and studied at Desio, Monza and Milan, and later at the Papal University (Gregoriana) in Rome. There he was dedicated to the priesthood in 1879 after he had graduated at the Gregoriana. In 1882 he returned to Milan as a tutor at the seminary and five years later became scriptor, then conservator and in 1907 prefect of the famous Ambrosius Library. He was thus put in the way of promotion to the highest office in the Church, for this post brought him into touch with all the great dignitaries and especially those in,Rome. In 1911, while retaining his previous appointment he was made vice-prefect of the Vatican Library under Father Ehrle, S.J., and after the retirement of the latter in October 1914 he was called to Rome by Pope Benedict to act as prefect of the great library. It is worthy of note that Ratti who had hitherto borne the reputation of a fine scholar, but not of a diplomat, was sent by Benedict in April 1918 as apostolic visitor to Poland which was still occupied by the German troops. In the circumstances his position was a very difficult one and, as he sought to preserve his neutrality at all costs, he did not always succeed in pleasing both sides. A case in point was his action after the proclamation of the Polish

Republic in forbidding the Polish clergy to participate in the political agitation in Upper Silesia. Meanwhile in July 1919 he had been appointed Papal Nuncio at Warsaw and titular Archbishop of Lepanto. After the death of Cardinal Ferrari he was appointed in June 1921 to succeed him and was consecrated as cardinal by Pope Benedict at his last Consistory. It fell to his lot to inaugurate the new Catholic University at Milan. ELECTION AS POPE On February 6, 1922, he was elected by the Conclave to succeed Pope Benedict XV, taking as his title Pius XI. For the first time for 52 years, that is since the temporal power of the Holy See was brought to an end by the consolidation of Italy, the Pope gave the blessing customary after his election, not merely in St Peter’s, but, as in the earlier days, from the balcony of the cathedral “urbi et orbi.” By this innovation he sought to indicate that he intended to pursue the policy of reconciliation between the Vatican and the Quirinal which had been initiated by his predecessor. Pius XI took the unusual step of confirming the Papal Secretary of State Cardinal Gasparri in his office. The Holy Father’s aim was indicated by his motto: “Pax Christi in regno Christi” and he carried it out consistently. Thus during the Ruhr conflict he sent Testa as his delegate. He devoted special attention to the question of the reunion of the Roman and Greek churches. Thanks to his efforts better relations were brought about with the Italian Government whose head, Signor Mussolini, met him halfway. But in December 1926 Pius XI denounced fascist acts of violence against Catholics and expressed regret that the education of the youth of Italy, which was the work of the church, was threatened by the fascist conception of a sectarian State —a reference to the fascist organization for training lads for their eventual entrance into the party and the Black Shirt militia. A month later, however, the Pontiff suppressed the Catholic scout troops in the country districts and small towns, thus showing his desire to avoid friction with the Government. At the same time he gave permission for Catholic children to enter the fascist organizations. POLITICS AND RELIGION The action of the Pope in placing the Action Francaise, the French Royalist paper, on the Index caused a sensation. He declared that he had done so because it was not lawful for Catholics (o adhere to programmes that placed politics before religion or to read papers directed by men, some of whose writings were incompatible with Catholic dogma and morality. In an encyclical he designated St. Francis de Sales as the patron of Catholic journalists and publicists. During his pontificate concordats were concluded with Poland and Bavaria, while I negotiations were carried on for concordats with Yugoslavia, Rumania and Germany. In June 1926 the Pope conferred on his brother, Fermo Ratti, the hereditary title of count on the eve of his daughter’s wedding to the Marchese Persichetti. The niece of the Pontiff was thus able to marry as a countess. Since Leo XIII none of the Popes had conferred a title on a member of his family. Leo and Benedict were themselves members of the nobility, while Pius X was strongly against ennobling his family, which was of very humble origin. Negotiations between Italy and the Vatican led in February 1929 to the conclusion of the Lateran Treaty and Concordat by which the Pope recovered his temporal power, lost to the Papacy since 1870. The Vatican and its grounds became an independent State under the name of the Vatican City with its own telegraph, telephone and wireless stations, coinage, stamps and banknotes. Nearly £22,000,000 was to be paid to the Holy See for the loss of its former 1 territories. It was given extra-territor-I ial rights in regard to various churches, ' the Villa Gandolfo (a possible summer ■ resort for the Pontiff) and the resii dences of cardinals and of diplomats ■ accredited to the Holy See. Italy aci cepted canon law in regard to marriage : for the whole country—an experiment never tried in any other modern state. The clergy were forbidden to join an? political party. Religious teaching was made compulsory in all elementary

schools. Later, however, there were clashes over the control of education. In July the Pope emerged for the first time from his “prison” and with great pomp made a circuit of St. Peter’s Square. Later in the year he went to St. John Lateran to say mass. The King and Queen paid their first visit to him in December. The Pontiff in February 1931 delivered his first address “urbi et orbi” by wireless. Signor Mussolini in May closed many clubs of the “Catholic Action” organization on the ground that they were mixing in politics and attacks were, made by fascists on the premises and members in various places. This led to strong protests by the Pope, who denied that the Catholic Action was a political body. Signor Mussolini replied that certain sections of it were hostile to the fascist regime and that membership was incompatible with fascism. A long and bitter controversy ensued, but in September the dispute was settled by an agreement that the clubs should be under the control of bishops, that their activities should De purely religious and that they must abstain from sport or athletics which came within the fascist province. The Pope in January 1932 gave a high decoration to Signor Mussolini, who visited him in February—the first occasion for 60 years on which an Italian Prime Minister had done so.

CLASH WITH NAZIS The control of education and youth organizations ■ was also the course of friction between the Vatican and the Nazi Government of Germany. Four months after Herr Hitler came to power in March 1933 a concordat between Germany and the Vatican was signed by the German Vice-Chancellor (Baron Franz von Papen) and the Vatican Secretary of State (Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli). It combined in one treaty the separate pacts existing between Prussia, Bavaria and Baden and the Vatican, and it provided that in purely ecclesiastical matters the Catholics should retain their freedom in matters of organization, contact with Rome, schools and other religious activities; but they should take no part as an organized body in politics in opposition to the Nazi State.

Herr Hitler has repeatedly violated the concordat. A year ago it was estimated that since July 1933 the Nazis had arrested 3500 Catholic priests and monks on charges ranging from immorality to violation of the exchange laws. In December 1931 part of the Vatican Library collapsed. The Pontiff was said to have been in the wrecked rooms a few minutes before the accident.

In successive encyclicals his Holiness declared that return to the Mother Church was the only possible form of religious unity, condemned birth control, companionate and mixed marriages, divorce and sterilization of the unfit, and asserted that no one could be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist. This last pronouncement caused a great sensation. In his early days in Milan Pius XI was a keen mountaineer and among other peaks he climbed the Matterhorn.