THE POPE AS A TEMPORAL SOVEREIGN

New Zealand Tablet, 29 September 1910, Page 1593

THE POPE AS A TEMPORAL SOVEREIGN

The following letter from the Right Rev. Dr. Casartelli, Bishop of Salford, appeared in a recent issue of the Manchester Guardian :-+■ ‘ Extremely averse as I am from taking part in any form of newspaper controversy, yet the publication in your “Miscellany” to-day of two paragraphs concerning the status of the Holy See seems to render it a matter of plain duty that I should enter an emphatic protest against the absolutely misleading character of the information contained therein. ‘ It is beyond question that the Pope is, even in the eyes of the nations of the world, and even though his temporal possessions be curtailed to the narrow area of the Vatican and its grounds, an independent Sovereign. It ; s therefore equally certain that he is not, and never can be, in any sense a subject of the Italian State, for were such a condition even possible it would be out of the question for the various Powers to maintain diplomatic relations with the Holy See exactly on the same lines and footing as they do with one another. Of the Great Powers, Austria and Spain have accredited to the Vatican “ Ambassadors and Ministers Plenipotentiary ” of the first rank, and both Prussia and Russia, though non-Catholic Powers, also have their “ Envoys and Ministers Plenipotentiary ” similarly accredited. Of the lesser Powers the following maintain at the Papal Court their “ Envoys and Ministers Plenipotentiary ” : The Argentine Republic, Belgium, Bavaria, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, San Domingo, Ecuador, Hayti, Honduras, Monaco, Nicaragua, Peru, Paraguay, and Venezuela. The Portuguese representative has the full rank of an Ambassador, and even the Ottoman Empire has appointed a resident Minister. On the other hand, the EEoly See has its Nuncios, who not only rank as Ambassadors, but take precedence of all the rest of the Diplomatic Corps at the Courts of Austria, Bavaria, Belgium, Brazil, Spain, and Portugal. Inter-Nuncios, or Delegates, being Ministers of lesser rank, are accredited to most, if not all, of the South and Central American States, and, what is more remarkable, an Inter-Nuncio represents the Holy See at the non-Catholic Court of Holland. It is clearly obvious that unless the Pope’s independent sovereignty were an accepted fact, such a condition of diplomatic relation with the civilised Powers would be unthinkable. That this is the official view may easily be seen by reference to that venerable and universally recognised authority, the Almanack de Gotha, where the name of the reigning Pontiff appears among the Royal Houses in Part I. and in Part 111. under the title Saint Siege Apostolique, the Vatican Government duly appears among les principaux etats du monde, while in the Appendix the name of the Holy Father is found in the list of les Souverains actuellernent regnants. It is a smaller point, but still indicative of the same fact, that the Pope still confers titles of nobility and orders of knighthood which are recognised in foreign countries, although not in our own. ‘Against the statement that “the Vatican and all its artistic treasures are not his, but the Italian Government’s,” I can only declare, in accordance with what I believe is the general conviction of the civilised world, that it is absolutely untrue.’ •