LIFE OF MODERN ITALY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3813, 25 September 1936, Page 8

LIFE OF MODERN ITALY

_ CHRISTIANITY AND FASCISM. AN INTERESTING ACCOUNT. An interesting account of Fascism in modern Italy was given in an address to the Wadestown Men’s Club, Wellington, by the Rev. Dr. Walsh, assistant priest at Thorndon. Dr. Walsh, who is an old boy of St. Bede’s, Christchurch, spent three years at the Laterau University, Rome. Modern Italy, said Dr. Walsh, was a land of surprises. The traveller went there prepared to be impressed by the historic splendours of a great race and ready to revel in' the memorials of a high and ancient culture; but one was usually surprised to find this sense of tradition and pride in a glorious past quickened and made active by a freshness of outlook, a spirit of adventure and a youthful eagerness which were entirely modern and exceedingly active. The race might be old, but the nation was young. “The Italy we know to-day,” Dr. Walsh continued, “was the creation of two forces; two elements which derive their power from different sources and envisage different ends. There was the birth of Fascism and the renaissance of religion and of these two the former has probably contributed most to the more typically aspects of modern Italy.” The . patriots of the Risorgimento had thought that Italy united and free could not fail to be well-ordered, prosperous and powerful. They were wrong, the speaker added. Economic and social questions were at least as pressing as the political one; and these problems the exponents of Liberal Democracy from 1870 onward were incapable of solving. The elaborate machinery of Parliamentary Government built up and perfected by years of slow evolution in England was transplanted to Italy. The people were politically uneducated, agriculture declined, poverty increased and corruption was rife. Hopes of colonial expansion were shattered by the disastrous campaign in Abyssinia, where the valour of officers and men was of no avail against corruption and mismanagement at home. The efforts during the Great War were more successful but the Allies failed to redeem their promises; and Italy left Versailles with relatively empty hands. Insulted by Paris and patronised by London, Rome seemed to be living on her dreams. Saved from Revolution. “If to-day all that is changed, if Italy has been purged of fear and scepticism, if she has passed from a third-rate to a first-class Power, this achievement is to the credit of the Fascist regime and its leader,” said Dr. Walsh. Reviewing the material and spiritual conquests of the movement, he said that it had saved a country on the verge of revolution and prevented Rome from becoming a second Moscow. Reconciliation between Church and State in 1929 had

marked a notable advance. For the first time in her history Italy had now a national spirit and was able to unite the finest elements among her people in enthusiasm for a common ideal.

Christianity and Fascism were apparently working harmoniously tog'ether and were united in a common

respect for the principles of authority and self-sacrifice. Following a policy of inspired opportunism, the Church was making great progress, especially among the younger generation. So deep, however, was Roman Catholic respect for the rights of the individual that it seemed reasonable to foresee the possibility of future conflict with the Fascist State. No political regime had any right to claim the supernatural sanctions of certain aspects of Fascism; while any form of exaggerated nationalism, the loss of individual rights in the totalitarian State, any tendency toward unwarranted aggression would naturally find iself in opposition to the gospel as preached by Pius XI.