textfiles-politics/pythonCode/personTestingOutput/mccabe08.xml

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<p> Reproducible <ent type='ORG'>Electronic Publishing</ent> can defeat censorship.</p>

<p> This file, its printout, or copies of either
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<p> Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
**** ****</p>

<p>Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius</p>

<p>THE BLACK INTERNATIONAL No. 8</p>

<p> THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p> HOW MUSSOLINI'S INVINCIBLE LEGIONS WERE BLESSED</p>

<p> by Joseph McCabe</p>

<p> HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUBLICATIONS
GIRARD -- : -- KANSAS</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> CHAPTER</p>

<p> I No Tears Over <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent> .............. 1</p>

<p> II The Stab in the Back ............... 7</p>

<p> III <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>, Not Being <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ist, Fights ...... 13</p>

<p> IV <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s Hamstring <ent type='GPE'>Yugoslavia</ent> ......... 20</p>

<p> V The Pipe-Dream of <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> and the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> ...... 26</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> Chapter I</p>

<p> NO TEARS OVER ALBANIA</p>

<p> Ten years ago that appalling greed which is the principal
dynamo of the barbaric energy that is wrecking the world expressed
itself in four plausible ambitions: those of <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y, <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent>
<ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <ent type='LOC'><ent type='ORG'>Imperial</ent>istic <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent></ent>, and the (spiritually) <ent type='ORG'>Imperial</ent>istic
Vatican. I say plausible because these ambitions were at that time
still restricted within such limits that they could be decked in
such pretexts (legitimate aspirations, racial unity,
overpopulation, etc.) as would provide a moral evasion for the
democracies whose real motive for inaction was the prospect of the
destruction of Socialism. <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>, which already had and openly
confessed an ambition to conquer and enslave all eastern <ent type='LOC'>Asia</ent> and
the islands of the <ent type='LOC'>Pacific</ent> hardly fits into this formula, but in
this series of booklets <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> occupies little space. We have only
to point to the fact, which may be verified in any work of
reference, that just when <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> began brazenly to exhibit its greed
and its callousness, the Vatican entered into diplomatic relations
with it which set the seal of a sacred cooperation upon its
adventures, and that on the eve (March, 1941) of the final, most </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
1
.
THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p>bloody, and most comprehensive extension of the conspiracy against
civilization the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> gave a most cordial interview and a gold
medal to Japan's most crafty agent, <ent type='ORG'>Matsuoka</ent>.</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> ten years ago still kept his ambition within the frame-work of <ent type='PERSON'>Mein Kampf</ent>. The noble <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> race could not tolerate that
large bodies of its people should be in subjection to inferior
nations (<ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Denmark</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Switzerland</ent>,
etc.) and must gather them into the <ent type='PERSON'>Reich</ent>; and it was necessary for
the full and free development of this Greater <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y that it
should take the <ent type='GPE'>Ukraine</ent> from what the whole world then agreed with
him to regard as the disreputable and incompetent <ent type='NORP'>Bolsheviks</ent>. We
have seen how urgently the Vatican was moved by its own policy to
link itself with the adventures of <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>sm. The <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> was already the richest in the world, or tied for that
position with <ent type='ORG'>the <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent>. It faced destruction if
it opposed the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s; it could expect an enormous increase of
wealth and power in the Greater <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y if it did not. Moreover,
the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s were bound to annihilate its deadly enemy, Socialism, in
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y and, if they succeeded, in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. So the
present <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, who knew <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y intimately and saw, as any schoolboy
could, that its program meant war at least with <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>,
and therefore also with <ent type='GPE'>Great Britain</ent>, helped the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s to attain
power and clung to them through years of shame until their prospect
of victory was dimmed by the heroic resistance of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> and the
help of <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>.</p>

<p> All that, and how <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> in <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y cheered
and blessed every ghastly extension of Hitler's greed when he
realized the incredible complacency of the western democracies, we
have seen. In this book I propose to consider in detail the
relation of the Vatican and <ent type='ORG'>the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> to the <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent>s: in
particular to the miserable adventurer who dreamed that he would
pass into history as the second Caesar and already finds his place
in it under the particularly odious name of the <ent type='PERSON'>Jackal</ent> -- the
stinking, Blinking, cowardly beast that lets other beasts kill and
fattens on the corpses of their victims. This is the Pope's closest
ally and friend, the leader of the dreamed-of League of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
<ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> powers.</p>

<p> In another booklet I have summarized the early career of this
gross type of adventures, the beginning of the Vatican's sordid and
venal alliance with him, and the way in which his first outrage,
the rape of <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>, coincided perfectly with the ambition of the
<ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> to recover its control of <ent type='ORG'>the Ethiopian Church</ent> and was
effusively blessed by the whole <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> hierarchy while the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
remained tactically silent. From that time until 1939, the <ent type='PERSON'>Jackal</ent>
got no pickings and saw himself sinking into vassalage to the more
powerful beast and his country despised throughout the world
without the compensation of plunder. Every meeting at the <ent type='PERSON'>Brenner</ent>
or dash of his rabbit-brained son-in-law to <ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent> was followed by
a harvest of glory and loot for <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> -- alone. The warning in
<ent type='PERSON'>Mein Kampf</ent> that <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y could never tolerate a second great power
in Europe was lost on him; and, while he joined gaily and coarsely
in every promise of clerical friendship which <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> made to small
nations, to keep them quiet until he was ready to rob them,
<ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> seems not to have reflected that Hitler's promises to
himself might be equally cynical.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
2
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THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p> During these years the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> remained, we will not say on
cordial terms but at least in alliance with the treacherous
warmonger, and the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> hierarchy and priesthood acclaimed every
step he took and every crude boast he made as enthusiastically as
the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> bishops supported <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>. Between the Mediterranean and
the frontier of <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent> several hundred <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> bishops and
quarter of a million priests, nuns, monks, and clerical agents did
what the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> apologist calls the beneficent work of his <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
in guiding the world, and almost without exception they were
servile in their flattery of the two dictators who were rapidly
dragging down Europe to the level of the savage. This chorus now
includes the bishops and priests of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent> as
well as those of <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>,
Hungary, and <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y.</p>

<p> In the face of this situation the <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> plea that
we must relieve the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> of responsibility for the action of local
hierarchies is seen to be ludicrous. One local hierarchy might at
some time be betrayed by its dread of offending its nation into a
morally indefensible position, and we should then expect the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent>
to rebuke it as it rebuked the <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n bishops and archbishops in
1899. But here we have ten of the most important local hierarchies
of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> united, under the eyes of the Vatican, for years in
praise and support of the worst evil that has befallen civilization
in modern times. Add the prelates and priests of the <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n
Republics and those who supported <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> in that country and <ent type='GPE'>China</ent>
and you have nine-tenths of the bishops and priests of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
world blessing corruption; and even in the remaining tenth many
speak very hesitatingly, if at all, for the cause of humanity and
civilization.</p>

<p> Let us distinctly understand that these priests and bishops,
encouraged by the Pope's refusal to censure or to break relations
with their brutal rulers, supported them in every step they took.
I have shown elsewhere that the whole <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> rejoiced
boisterously over the conquest of <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent> and that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, who
is now said by Cardinal Hinsley to have called it a "barbarous
outrage", gave the supreme gift to womanhood of his <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, the
Golden Rose, to <ent type='LOC'>the Queen</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> in her character of <ent type='ORG'>Empress</ent> of
<ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>. That easy piece of conquest had proved of great value to
the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, but of practically none to <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>. The chief motive of
it had been the personal ambition of <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> to avenge a
humiliating defeat that the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s had earlier suffered in
<ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent> and to create something that he could call a <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>
Empire. One would not be surprised if he thought the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> people
would in time put the purple mantle on his own shoulders.</p>

<p> Since that time he had waited impatiently for his share in the
<ent type='ORG'>Axis</ent>-loot, and at the beginning of 1939 he decided to add <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>
to the glorious new <ent type='GPE'>Roman Empire</ent>. In the midst of his preparations
the old <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> died and <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> became <ent type='PERSON'>Pius XII</ent>. Partly in order to
obscure his alliance with the dictators <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers have said
that <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> opposed the election of <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>. He wanted a
"religious" <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> -- a man who would attend exclusively to <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
matters and leave rulers and statesmen to act as they pleased --
not a "political" <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> like <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>. If anybody can point to any
act or word of <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> during the preceding ten year's as Secretary</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
3
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THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p>of State which challenged <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> we might entertain the story.
There was no such act or word, except an occasional lament of
breaches of the Concordat; and these things never troubled
<ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> or <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> because they never weakened or disturbed the
loyalty of their local <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es. Papal policy went on without a
change. The man who had been the power behind the throne was now on
the throne.</p>

<p> As to the statement that the new <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was greatly distressed
at the invasion of <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>, it is just one of those anonymous
extenuations of a Pope's blunders or crimes. <ent type='PERSON'>Pius XII</ent> was crowned
on March 12 (1939), and the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> troops crossed to <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent> on
April 7. That date was Good Friday, and a pious churchman might be
annoyed at the choice; and a further possible annoyance was that
the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was busy preparing his beautiful <ent type='LOC'>East</ent>er message on peace
which in the circumstances jarred on the ears of many. But it would
be sheer folly to suggest that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> did not know that <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>
was going to annex <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>. Month's of preparation are required for
an overseas expedition of half a million men with modern equipment.
At the very time when the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was crowned the tanks must have been
rumbling along the roads of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, and the men and material and
ships must have been gathering at Brindisi long before the date of
sailing. But to understand fully the relation of the Vatican to
that piece of imperialist filibustering we must know something
about the character of <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>.</p>

<p> It was little more than a word even to thoughtful people
before 1939 and was totally unknown to the millions. I confess that
I was myself surprised when, a few years earlier, one of the
pilgrims to my house, a cultivated and substantial young man who
was taking a post-graduate course at <ent type='ORG'>London University</ent>, told me
that he was an <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>n. An amazing illustration of the general
ignorance and lack of interest is seen in the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
Encyclopedia, which was, of course, written many years before the
invasion. It gives estimates of the number of <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>ns varying
from one to nearly two millions -- in a Supplement 20 years later
the figure is given as 850000, which is not far wrong -- and says
that "the best of the population is <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>." I may be wrong but
I doubt if the reader would understand from this that little more
than one-tenth of the population were <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, and that these
nearly all lived in a half-civilized condition in the mountains of
the north. The <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writer praises their virtue and then admits
that until recent time's they had a tradition of kidnapping
handsome <ent type='NORP'>Turkish</ent> girls and carrying them off to the mountains; but
I must add that they gave them the sacraments of (compulsory)
baptism and marriage before sleeping with them. The violent
passions that were displayed in their feuds were notorious
throughout south-eastern Europe. It was through these densely
illiterate and priest-ridden highlanders, the Mirdites and <ent type='ORG'>Shoshi</ent>,
that <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> began to engineer the "invitation" to him to take
over the country.</p>

<p> As the "conquest" was almost entirely won by bribery of the
<ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>ns and lying to their neighbors we should find the Vatican's
share in the responsibility comparatively mild and will not linger
over it. Briefly, <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent> is an outlying fragment of the <ent type='NORP'>Turkish</ent>
Empire which in the fifteenth century took over the lands of the </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
4
.
THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p>old <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Roman Empire</ent>. It lay on the very edge of the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> world,
separated by a wall of religious hatred from the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> world, and,
being in addition very mountainous, remained, like all countries
(<ent type='GPE'>Ireland</ent>, etc.) in that geographical position, very backward. The
<ent type='NORP'>Turks</ent> never quite subdued the primitive mountaineers of the north,
and they kept their <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> faith all through the <ent type='NORP'>Moslem</ent> days. In
1939 there were about 700000 <ent type='NORP'>Moslem</ent> in the country, 200000
<ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> (non-<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>) <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, and 100000 <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s. The
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, as in the case of <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>, looked to <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> rule to bring
under his control the 200000 dissident <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s and as many of
the <ent type='NORP'>Moslem</ent> as possible. One really finds it easier to believe that
the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> on that Good Priday prayed very fervently for the success
of the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> arms. And he had, as so often happens, a little
friend at court. The pretty Queen Geraldine was a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, and
poor <ent type='PERSON'>Zog</ent> little dreamed when he built a luxurious chapel for her a
few years earlier and gave her a suite of chaplains that soon he
would be flying over the hills with the crown jewels.</p>

<p> Here again the interests of the imperialist adventurer and the
spiritualistic imperialist neatly coincided. <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>, already
conscious that the leading burglar had altered his plan of dividing
the spoils -- <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> to have Europe north of the <ent type='LOC'>Danube</ent> and
<ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> all to the south of it -- wanted at least to make sure of
<ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-glavia as a bastian of his Medeteiranean and
<ent type='NORP'>African</ent> Empire. Some say that he surprised and annoyed <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> by
his "conquest" -- it cost him the lives of 12 men of his invincible
legions -- of <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>. Not likely. He knew of Mussolini's
preparations, for <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> swarmed with his spies, and he says that
when the time came to attack <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent> the possession
of <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>, a few hours' sail from <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, would be a great
advantage to both. To say that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was not in their counsels
seems, as I said, ridiculous. Within a week of his coronation the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> had a visit from <ent type='ORG'>Clano</ent> and on the following day one from the
Prince of <ent type='GPE'>Piedmont</ent>. A survey of some such summary of the world-news
as that in Keesing's '<ent type='ORG'>Contemporary Archives</ent>' will show that the
relations of the Vatican with the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> government were
particularly good that year. In December <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> appointed a
formal 'ambassador at the <ent type='ORG'>Papal Court</ent>, and the year ended with the
sumptuous visit of the king and queen to the Vatican (December 21)
and the rare event of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> taking his Christmas greeting in
person to the palace, (28) as I have elsewhere described. <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>
did not ruffle a hair of the Pope's head.</p>

<p> We must, as I said, take into consideration that the conquest
was practically bloodless, the way having been so thoroughly
prepared with gold. In 1915 the <ent type='ORG'>Allied</ent> powers, looking for bits of
territory with which to bribe possible supporters like <ent type='GPE'>Serbia</ent> and
<ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>, had decided to cut up <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>. <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> had saved it and in
time made it a nominally independent kingdom. Mussolini's
"patronage" became so onerous and ominous, however, that King <ent type='PERSON'>Zog</ent>
became restless and it was decided to evict him and open one of the
gates to <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>. Everybody will remember how Mussolini's shrewish
daughter and her popinjay of a husband, who fairly clearly fancied
themselves as future empress and emperor, had white horses in
reserve for their triumphal entry into <ent type='GPE'>Athens</ent>. Not less eagerly did
the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> look forward to that event as the beginning of his
conquest of the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and other <ent type='ORG'>Nation</ent>al <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
5
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THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p>which scorned Rome's claim of supremacy. But it will be well to
postpone to the last chapter a consideration of the grandiose plan
of an oriental counterpoise to the influence which the wealth of
the great democracies was giving them in the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>.</p>

<p> We should, however, notice in conclusion that while the
conquest of <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent> was almost bloodless, it was won by such
corruption and perfidy that the Pope's virtual blessing of it again
puts him in the gang. It was by a lavish expenditure of money that
<ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>, the man who wrote that war alone enobles a man,
prevented serious resistance and induced the "notables" of <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>
to desert <ent type='PERSON'>Zog</ent> and offer the crown to the king of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>. This was
sordid enough, but the deception of <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent>, which
were alarmed to get the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> army at their frontiers, was
revolting; if we can find any sympathy for any statesmen in Europe
who believed a word that the dictators said after five years of
lying and repudiation of agreements.</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Roosevelt</ent> had asked the pair of arch-criminals to sign an
agreement to refrain from any aggressive movement for ten year's,
and <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> had, with an air of pain and sorrow, refused to sign
such a document on the ground that it was an insult to suggest that
he might have any such intention. There was a more direct and
brazen deception of <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>. Every statesman knew
that Mussolini's imperialist program demanded, not <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>, which
was of little value except as a route to <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>, but the <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent>n coast of the <ent type='LOC'>Adriatic</ent>, to the north of it, which had
splendid harbors (in which the eastern coast of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> is very
deficient) and was part of the old <ent type='GPE'>Roman Empire</ent>. <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> gave a
solemn assurance to <ent type='GPE'>Belgrade</ent> that the annexing of <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent> need not
give it the least concern. The <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s knew that <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> coveted the
island of <ent type='GPE'>Corfu</ent>, off the southern coast of <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>, and they and
the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> asked for assurances. They got them in profusion; --
and it seems a mystery unless you keep in mind always that <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>
and <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y were destroying Socialism for the capitalists of the
world -- believed them. On December 10 <ent type='ORG'>the Grand Council</ent> of
Fascism, Mussolini's chief mouthpiece, gravely announced to the
world that it was "the desire of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> to 'see order and peace
maintained and consolidated in the <ent type='NORP'>Balkan</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Danubian</ent> areas", and
this would be better promoted by Hungary, <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent>, and
<ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> refraining from entering into <ent type='NORP'>Balkan</ent> defensive alliance
which <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> urged them to form. They consented, and
Hungary and <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent> -- both in close touch with the Vatican --
began at once to drift into the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> sphere of influence.</p>

<p> Under shelter of this camouflage-screen of lies the two
dictators, sure of peace on their eastern and southern frontiers,
pushed on their preparations for the great spring offensive in the
west. The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> professed to believe the protests of <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> and
his <ent type='ORG'>Grand Council</ent>. He ended the year, as I said, although it had
witnessed the ruthless destruction of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent>, in a quite
exceptional round of chaste Christmas festivities and issued his
biennial essay on the beauty of peace. As <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> had not yet
approached the major clauses of his program -- war upon <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> for
the <ent type='GPE'>Ukraine</ent> and upon <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> for the recovery of <ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Lorraine</ent>. --
I leave to others the analysis of the Pope's mind. My own
suggestions would be malicious. But one fact stands clear of all </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
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THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p>guesses and conjectures. He had never passed one word of censure on
the gross deceptions and cynical breaches of the assurances given
to the world by his allies in 1939. By that time the reassuring
documents signed or issued by <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y, and <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> and
brazenly repudiated by later action -- often a few months later --
would have papered a commodious dining-room. Never has the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
condemned that perfidy of his allies which was making international
faith a lost quality of the wicked nineteenth century or one
reserved to the "impious" <ent type='NORP'>Bolsheviks</ent>.</p>

<p> Chapter II</p>

<p> THE STAB IN THE BACK</p>

<p> It will be part of the puzzle of our age to the future
historian to discover why anybody was ever taken by surprise by any
of the terrible outrages that, occurred every few months. The
program, of the great international bandits had been before the
world for years, and Hitler's program included, and emphasized in
many chapters of his book, a war of revenge on <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, the recovery
of <ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Lorraine</ent>, and the truculent statement that <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> was so
degenerate, so debased with <ent type='NORP'>Negro</ent> blood, that it must be blotted
out forever from the company of European powers. To plead in
extenuation that <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> never permitted a full foreign translation
of his book is childish. Every foreign office in the world and
large numbers of journalists knew its contents. For such follies as
<ent type='ORG'>Chamberlain</ent> accepting the word of <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> that he had abandoned
those plans, or the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> accepting a similar statement in an
interview which <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> gave a <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> journalist, or almost
unanimous silence of the world-press there is, as I have repeatedly
said, only one explanation: so eager were they all for the
destruction of Socialism, which <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> promised, that
they mistook the knife of an assassin for the scalpel of a surgeon.
If that is difficult to believe think out, if you can, some other
explanation; and study the action of the bankers and industrialists
of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> today who are actually cooperating in a New Order that
merely postpones their annihilation.</p>

<p> Whether the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was surprised by the war in the west I have
discussed in other booklets. I could at that time quote no
authority to support me in my suggestion that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was fully
informed of the plot before even the invasion of <ent type='GPE'>Norway</ent>. I told,
from the Papal newspaper itself, how <ent type='PERSON'>Ribbentrop</ent> was sent to see the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> a few days before <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> met <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> at the <ent type='PERSON'>Brenner</ent> to
arrange the date of his intervention and how the <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent>
reflected the joyous expectation of the Vatican that a very
important agreement was to be signed. The only plausible theory of
this is that <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> wanted the cooperation, which he got, of the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s of <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, and that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> demanded so high
a price for his services that a month of hard bargaining followed.
But <ent type='ORG'>the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> and the Vatican emphatically endorsed the
action of the <ent type='NORP'>Belgian</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> traitors -- <ent type='PERSON'>Leopold</ent>,
Petain, Laval, <ent type='ORG'>Weygand</ent>, and <ent type='PERSON'>Darlan</ent> -- and the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> gained
mightily in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. Within the last week or two the 1940 volume of
<ent type='ORG'>the Annual Register</ent> has appeared and that weighty and quite
impartial authority says, drawing upon "Vatican sources", that </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p><ent type='PERSON'>Ribbentrop</ent> told the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> that "<ent type='NORP'>German</ent> soldiers would be in <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> by
June and in <ent type='GPE'>London</ent> by August". This was on March 11, 1940. <ent type='PERSON'>Shirer</ent>
confirms that some hard bargaining between the Vatican and <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y
went on at this time. He says that Msgr <ent type='PERSON'>Orsenigo</ent>, the <ent type='PERSON'>Nuncio</ent> at
<ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent> "had been quietly paying visits to the <ent type='ORG'>Wilhelmsstrasse</ent> for
weeks" (<ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent> Diary, p. 234).</p>

<p> The <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> has the consolation of knowing that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
sacredly guarded the confidence that was made to him. At least I
assume the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> will regard that as a virtue. <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> had declared war on <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y and must have expected attack.
The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> alone knew, outside a narrow <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> circle, that
it was to be delivered at that time and in that fashion, so that it
would probably be fatal to <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. But he virtuously kept the
secret to himself. Some folk, looking back on all the horrors that
followed and confronting all the horrors that may yet come as the
treachery of Vichy deepens, may even say that there are more
precious things than virtue; or that the Pope's firmness on this
one point while he virtually encouraged his three allies in years
of deceit, corruption, and savagery reminds them of an earlier
moralist who rebuked a man for straining at a gnat and swallowing
a camel.</p>

<p> We will not suppose that <ent type='PERSON'>Pius XII</ent> knew all the methods which
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y had used in preparing <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> for its baptism of blood and
transformation into a real <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> country. There were even anti-<ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> folk who blamed me when I suggested that it used the sexual
attraction of women as well as the zeal of priest's and priest-ridden folk. But it is still doing this. I have before me an
article in which a man who has just come from <ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent> describes
how that country is being prepared for bloodless conquest. Amongst
other things he says:</p>

<p> "A social layer has also been imported, including many-lingual
<ent type='NORP'>Aryan</ent> titled women whose morals are at the service of the <ent type='PERSON'>Fuehrer</ent>.
The line is to attract the snub element among the <ent type='NORP'>Portuguese</ent>"
(<ent type='GPE'>London</ent> Evening Standard, November 4 -- the most conservative
evening paper in <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>).</p>

<p> One wonders if this new type of "vice-squad" includes some of
the dainty aristocratic ladies who did such good work for <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> in
<ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> before 1939. Even those of us who are not puritans find this
method of preparing the way for "glorious victories" revolting. No
trick is too dirty for the Pope's allies, On the same day comes the
news that Hitler's men are castrating bodies of the finest youths
of <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> and that they have 10000 <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> uniforms ready
for treacherous use in the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent>. The priests follow up the <ent type='ORG'>Gestapo</ent>
to castrate what they call men's souls.</p>

<p> A second method in which the Vatican cooperated with <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> and
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y in securing the success of the war in the <ent type='LOC'>West</ent> was by
continuing to denounce <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. Whether or no <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> really
feared that <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> would move in the <ent type='NORP'>Balkan</ent>s while he was busy in
the west, it is a fact that he and <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> and the Vatican used
this suggestion to divert the attention of the <ent type='NORP'>Balkan</ent> powers from
their real danger and bind Hungary and <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent> closer to <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y.
All through the winter of 1939-1940, when preparations were being </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p>made for operations in the west, the conduct of the <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent>s was as
crooked and deceptive as that of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y and <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>. <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>
bellowed about the peace of Europe and the threat to it from
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. His people were solemnly assured, as they had been after
the annexation of <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>, that unless <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> struck all that
they had to do was to make economic profit out of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y's war
with <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>. It was said that <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> even offered to
sell planes to <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> but <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> forbade it. On the other hand when
<ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> held up <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> ships carrying coal to <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>
press was let loose in full fury upon it. Perfidious Albion was
said even to be at the back of the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n menace and the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n
seizure of part of <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Finland</ent>.</p>

<p> It is fortunate that we have not here to attempt to
disentangle the apparent confusion of the first quarter of 1940,
with <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y an ally of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> on the one hand and with <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>,
its bitterest enemy, on the other. We know now, of course, that the
Russo-<ent type='NORP'>German</ent> agreement was a sham on both sides. The real tragedy
of it is that a just, and honest, not to say friendly, approach to
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> on the part of <ent type='GPE'>Great Britain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> would have prevented
this postponement of Russia's intervention in the war and might
have averted terrible evils and sufferings from Europe. <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, it
is true, did not consider itself ready for war in 1939, but neither
had <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y one-half the equipment which it would have in 1941,
with the forges of Europe pouring out steel and the fields growing
food for it from <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> to <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>, from Scandinavia to <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>. A
crucial factor in the whole horrible development is that hatred of
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> which the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> had done even more than the capitalists to
inflame in every part of the world.</p>

<p> In March, as we saw, the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was informed of the plan to
invade the <ent type='LOC'>West</ent> which had been maturing all through the winter. We
must assume that in the course of the heated argument in which
<ent type='PERSON'>Ribbentrop</ent> assured the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> that the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> troops would be in
<ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> by June he explained that the great barrier of the Maginot
Line, on which <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> relied to an amazing extent,
would be turned by an invasion of <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>. Whether the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was informed also of the coming intervention of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> we do
not know. The story was put out, by one of the very useful
anonymous purveyors of information in the service of the Vatican
that when <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> at length approached a declaration of war on
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> wrote him a letter begging him to refrain (<ent type='ORG'>New York</ent>
Times, June 5). Professor La Piana observes that "if this letter is
not another fiction like the mythical letter supposed to have been
written in 1914 by Pius X to the Emperor of <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, the <ent type='NORP'>Duce</ent> must
have thrown it into the waste-paper basket, for on June 11 the
heroic gesture of striking the nation already defeated by <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y
was made", and the Vatican adopted "an attitude of complete
reserve". There has never been an official claim that such a letter
was written, and just one month earlier the <ent type='NORP'>Duce</ent> had shown how
little he respected the Pope's wishes by peremptorily and
successfully ordering him to discontinue publishing <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> war-news in his paper.</p>

<p> But Professor La Piana (of <ent type='ORG'>Harvard</ent>), writing in the <ent type='ORG'>Nation</ent> in
March, 1941, goes on to show how, whatever reserve the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
maintained -- for a week or two, let me add -- <ent type='ORG'>the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent>
supported the action of <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> with its usual enthusiasm. The </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
9
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THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p><ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n paper's which reproduced Roosevelt's description of
Mussolini's action -- "the hand that held the dagger plunged it
into the back of its neighbor" -- did not speak of the joy of the
<ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. As if to excuse the Vatican in advance the <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>
correspondent of the <ent type='ORG'>New York</ent> Times (June 12) quoted from Vatican
sources -- "semiofficial" this time it seems -- that "the attitude
and responsibility of the Vatican are entirely separate from those
of the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> clergy and the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s". If there was one
national hierarchy in the world that was strictly controlled by the
Vatican it was surely that of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>; and, in fact, the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>
clergy were as strictly pledged as the Vatican never to take part
in polities, These agreements of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> to avoid politics seem
always to have the unwritten clause "on the wrong side". The
<ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> went be<ent type='ORG'>yon</ent>d the bulk of the people of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, who
notoriously did not want war, in cheering <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>, but, since the
papers of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> could be relied upon not to
reproduce the words of the bishops, that was safe and profitable
interference in politics. But the Pope's words would probably be
reproduced in every country so he must keep "an attitude of
complete reserve".</p>

<p> On <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> theory, and in any case, bishops and priests no
more approve injustice than Pope's do, but I need only quote one or
two instances from Professor La Piana's article. On June 16 the
Archbishop of <ent type='GPE'>Gorizia</ent> exhorted his people in a pastoral letter --
one of several issued at that time -- to "lift reverent thoughts to
the ever victorious King and Emperor and to the undefeated <ent type='NORP'>Duce</ent>:
may God bless and protect him." Cardinal Schuster, head of the
<ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, visited soldier's in the barracks at <ent type='GPE'>Milan</ent> and
"distributed blessed medals to bring luck to the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> armies".
The Civilia <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>a, which is almost as much an organ of the
Vatican as the <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent>, urged the soldiers to "shed their blood
for the cause blessed by their religion." On June 27th, when <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>
was prostrate in the dust, thirty <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> bishops gave away one of
the reasons for their joy, and one that must have been very active
in the Vatican. They urged the <ent type='NORP'>Duce</ent> to "crown the unfailing victory
of our army" by taking the Holy Land from <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> hands
and putting it, on the religious side, under the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>. This, they
said, would fitly express "the harmony between the civilized people
of <ent type='ORG'>Imperial</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>". The shrines of the Holy Land are,
I need not recall, almost as profitable as <ent type='ORG'>Monte Carlo</ent>, which was
to have been, he thought, one of Mussolini's rewards, but we will
consider the oriental policy of the Vatican in the last chapter.</p>

<p> Note the reference in the letter of the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> bishops to
"the civilized people of <ent type='ORG'>Imperial</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>". The rest of
the world used very different language about their enthusiasm for
Mussolini's action. We should, it is true, not regard the whole
<ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> people as approving it, but the above quotations show that
the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> -- and of <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Brazil</ent>,
etc. -- joyously supported it. In <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> the more
Papal <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s followed the Pope's example of "complete reserve"
for every decent non-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> about them considered that this act
alone justifies us in calling <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> the <ent type='PERSON'>Jackal</ent>. Some writers
say that he incurred the anger and contempt of <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> by holding
off from intervention until <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> was mortally wounded. I prefer
to think that they were in agreement, but at Mussolini's </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
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THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p>suggestion. As a member of the diplomatic corps in <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> said:
"<ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> does not want to fight a sick man: he wants to gouge the
eyes out of a corpse." Some such language was used wherever tongues
and pens were free, and non-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>.</p>

<p> To the last moment <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> had maintained his policy of
craft and deceit. He continued to fool <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> with trade-talks.
When, in May, <ent type='PERSON'>Roosevelt</ent> asked for a declaration of his intention,
he declared that he had no intention of entering the war. It is
true that as <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y bowled over country after country his press
began to complain of the "ring of steel" that the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> command
of the Mediterranean drew round <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> and hymns of hate even for
children, began to be heard. But <ent type='ORG'>Ciano</ent>, the Jackal's pup, still
thought he was fooling the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> representatives with trade-talks, though as <ent type='ORG'>Chamberlain</ent> had now given place to <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>ill
probably no one was duped. At the beginning of June the <ent type='EVENT'>World Fair</ent>,
which had until that date been announced to be held in <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, was
"postponed", and the sailing of <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> liners was canceled. And on
June 10 <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>s were summoned not by blare of trumpets but by cards,
to come to the <ent type='GPE'>Palazzo Venezia</ent> to listen to the final lie. He
declared that "<ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> has done everything possible to arrest this
terrible war" -- which he had jubilantly arranged with <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> at
the <ent type='PERSON'>Brenner</ent> a few weeks earlier -- but must now face "the risks (!)
and sacrifices" which the wickedness of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> forced
upon it. He added, as if he luxuriated in lying: "I do solemnly
declare that I do not intend to involve other nations in the
struggle" and expressly called upon <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Turkey</ent>
to "take notice of these words of mine". Witnesses say that the
great body of the people who were in the square heard him and
departed in silence, and a gloom settled upon <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>. But the
church-bells rang, and the bishops hung their consecrated garlands
on the bull-neck of the brutal adventurer.</p>

<p> The Pope's "complete reserve" lasted until Petain sat firmly
-- I mean was held firmly by <ent type='PERSON'>Darlan</ent> and <ent type='ORG'>Weygand</ent> -- in the saddle,
and <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> papers all over the world, even in <ent type='GPE'>England</ent> (as I
quoted), rejoiced at the glorious state into which the "heroic soul
of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>" had passed, if a little tarnished in the wings.
Socialism, Communism, <ent type='NORP'>Freemasonry</ent>, and <ent type='ORG'>Freethought</ent>, which for 60
years, to the deep concern of the Vatican, had kept four-fifths of
the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> people out of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, were swept away by the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>
flood. By a sudden change which any observer in Europe would have
pronounced forever impossible a year earlier the government was
solidly <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, and decrees which transformed the country on the
lines of the Papal encyclical poured out from Vichy. It looked as
if <ent type='GPE'>England</ent> was now surely doomed -- even in friendly <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> the
betting was against its chance of survival -- and the brutal
soldiers who had effected this marvelous recovery of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in
<ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> had made good their
boast that they would settle the map of Europe and <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y's
domination of it for a century.</p>

<p> With the recovery of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> the Vatican had, by a
swish of the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> sabre, turned 40000000 "bad <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s" into
"good <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s -- into men and women who must hide the truth in
their hearts and lie (attending church, etc.) with their actions.
Think of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> and South <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
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THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p>What a miracle of <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>-growth <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> had witnessed since he had
taken office in <ent type='ORG'>the Secretariat</ent> of State in 1929! Or ought we to
say, what a stupendous recovery of <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>-power he had effected by
his alliance with <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>? Can anybody doubt, in view
of this outcome of the invasion of the <ent type='LOC'>West</ent>, that he had in fact
known in advance of the plan and approved, if not assisted, it?</p>

<p> Consider also the subsequent course of events in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. The
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s used the armistice-conditions, to which Petain had
consented with an express, if childish, reliance on the "honor" of
the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> commanders, with all the treachery and brutality which
were now a normal part of their behavior. "<ent type='ORG'>Armistice</ent>-commissions",
consisting of soldiers in mufti, gestapo men, engineers, looters,
etc., were sent to every part of the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> empire to prepare the
way for the occupation which they had sworn they did not
contemplate. They plundered <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, down to its door-knobs and
bath-taps, from <ent type='GPE'>Metz</ent> to <ent type='GPE'>Marseilles</ent>. With mocking courtesy they paid
useless paper for the silks and scents and wines of which they
stripped the stores of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> to send to their wives and friends in
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y. They appropriated half the food-supply, cattle, and
poultry and, while they gorged on them, told the half-starved women
and children to apply to <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> or draw upon <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='LOC'>Africa</ent>, and
then took 60 percent, in addition of what was imported. They
brought vast numbers of their own women and children to feed on
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and to laugh at the humanity of <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> bombers who would
spare <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> civilian towns. They compelled the workers, under
threat of starvation, from <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> to <ent type='GPE'>Bordeaux</ent>, to make munitions
for use against the only nation which was trying to deliver them.</p>

<p> But perhaps such matters cannot concern a <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> whose mind is
occupied with higher things; though we do seem to have heard of him
sending, when it suited the interest of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, Red Cross
supplies to the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent>. What else did the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s do? They applied in
ten-fold force that brutal and immoral doctrine of <ent type='NORP'>Prussian</ent>
militarism, that ten innocent civilians must be murdered if one who
is guilty cannot be detected. The world was deeply stirred by these
batches of murder in fifties, but the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> and the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> bishops
were silent; and the priest-ridden <ent type='ORG'>Petitin</ent> was content to appeal to
the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> people to "stop these criminal outrages against the
troops of occupation!" It is true that we get the usual
unauthorized report that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> protested through his <ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent>
<ent type='PERSON'>Nuncio</ent>, but we have grown a little cynical about these reports.</p>

<p> The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> and the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> bishops were still silent when <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y
pressed Petain to tear off the one rag of "honor" he had kept at
his surrender: his vow that he would never under any circumstances
hand over the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> fleet or <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> ports in <ent type='LOC'>Africa</ent> for use
against <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>. Petain's <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> colleagues are in favor of it,
and the prelates, the guardians of the honor of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>,
are not interested. That is politic's. As I write the news comes
that a number of the common priests of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> are stung to attack
their bishops for their cooperation with this corrupt and cowardly
gang at Vichy: a gang which, with <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> collaboration, uses every
device to spread hatred of <ent type='GPE'>England</ent> and may soon crown their infamy
by causing the ugliest and most revolting of all the evil
outgrowths of their policy: war between <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>England</ent>. Already
<ent type='NORP'>Moslem</ent> writers in <ent type='GPE'>Turkey</ent> are commenting with cynical disgust on the</p>

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<p>prospect, which seems to them to open, of the fleet of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
<ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> at war with the fleet of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> in
the Mediterranean; the prospect of a <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>-ruled <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> spending
its blood on behalf of the power which has always been its
bitterest foe and under its present rulers is sworn to annihilate
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent>! In view of Hitler's repeated words about <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and what he
is actually doing in <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> one would very
seriously expect the castration of <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>men on a ghastly scale
when the war is over. And the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> keeps to his policy of "complete
reserve" and permits (or directs) his <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>
to support cordially, because they are useful to the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, the
miserable or stupid Vichy gang who thus betray the high honor of
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and the first principles of civilization.</p>

<p> Chapter III</p>

<p> GREECE, NOT BEING ROMANIST, FIGHTS</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> was troubled by the disgust with which the better
elements in <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> itself regarded his vile conduct in regard to
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. His servile press attempted to excuse it by a campaign of
lies about <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>, while thoughtful folk still had
fresh in their minds the treacherous negotiations which he had
<ent type='ORG'>Ciano</ent> conduct with <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> until the last moment. The Black
International of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> applauded his act with their customary
fervor, but we have the assurance of one neutral visitor after
another that the urban and better-educated <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s loathe him and
his entanglement with <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y, which alone now saves him from
destruction. From the year in which, for a heavy bribe, he
sacrificed his convictions and the dearly-purchased liberties of
<ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> to begin the destruction of Socialism for the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, throne,
and capitalism he has brought misery upon the beautiful land.</p>

<p> That is not rhetoric. It is a cold summary of the statistics,
published by the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> government itself year by year and found
in any good reference-book to which we look for a more reliable
estimate of a country's social and economic health than we are
likely to get from political partisans. They show that <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> is a
land of poverty staggering under a stupendous load of internal
debt.</p>

<p> Two things only, apart from debt and crime, can boast of
growth in <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> under <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>: the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and the <ent type='ORG'>Army</ent>. The
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> has incalculably more power and much more wealth than it has
had at any time since 1870. Through its cooperation with Fascism it
has acquired a supremacy which any educated <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> before 1929
would pronounce, whether he was <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> or not, absolutely
inconceivable in modern <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>. It's medieval Canon Law, which was
regarded as dead, is embodied in the civil law and it controls
education. It has seen the deadly enemies against whom it was
fighting a losing battle -- Liberalism, Socialism, Communism,
<ent type='NORP'>Freemasonry</ent>, and <ent type='ORG'>Freethought</ent> -- fall under the blood-dripping
fascist axe. Small wonder that it loyally carries out the contract
of service which it signed in 1929 -- to use all its influence to
keep the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> people obedient to their <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> masters.</p>

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<p> You may have noticed little indications of secrecy, of hidden
motivation, in those references to <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> or <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n intrigues to
get <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> out of the war that one sees occasionally in the papers.
This furtiveness does not mean only that international capital
wants to be sure that Socialism will not, as Cardinal Hinsley
predicted, succeed to the power of <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>. It means that
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n and <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s fear still more the consequences to
the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of such a revolution. In no other country in the world
can Socialists chant with deeper historical sincerity: "Our Flag is
red with martyrs' blood." Some day they may be so wicked as to
retaliate. You see, they are without "the restraints of religion".</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> thought that he could disarm the anger of his
freethinking <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> follower's at this restoration of the medieval
powers of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> by making <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> a formidable military nation
and restoring the <ent type='GPE'>Roman Empire</ent>. The second line of his original
appeal to the country, after the proposal to destroy Socialism, was
that <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> had been scurvily treated at <ent type='GPE'>Versailles</ent> because the
other powers regarded it as too weak to give any trouble. In point
of fact it had been treated more generously than its services in
the last war merited, but <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> soon found that if you roar a
lie loud enough it has the accents of truth. He has spoken and
written in praise of war -- any war -- more crudely than <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and
has demanded floods of babies to make great armies. Not that he has
any military ability. He never led anything but a mob with cudgels
against a weaker mob. It is a fiction that he was wounded in the
last war, and, while <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> can certainly boast that he led the
start of the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> march on <ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent> -- even if he has to liquidate
any man who recalls that he ran like a hare at the first shot --
<ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> remained 200 miles away from the <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> march on <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>,
until he heard that there was no shooting. However, the army,
acting with the throne and capital, had put him in power, and he
set out to drain <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> of its scanty wealth to equip his invincible
legions.</p>

<p> It is one of the most pathetic chapters of his story. In the
old democratic days when we used to argue whether a strong man
would not rule the state, better than the many-headed some of us
were willing to entertain the idea that, at least, he would be more
effective in the military field. <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> soldiers are as brave as
any but somehow they have written a sorry page of military history.
They will hardly boast of the conquest of <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>, which reminds
us of a squad of gunmen firing into kids on the streetwalk,
especially as the upshot was to present the half-starved people
with a desolation, and now they have lost even that. In <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent> on a
famous occasion they fled like rabbits before the <ent type='NORP'>Spanish</ent> workers.
In <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent> they were even worse humiliated, and on "Our Sea," the
Mediterranean, their ships scurry to port at sight of an enemy. It
has become a joke that the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s excel in all speed-records.
They wait until <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> is in agony to declare war on it; and they
then learn, when they ask for their share of the loot, that even
the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s have a contempt for the military machine that <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>
has created.</p>

<p> So <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>, seeing his demand of Corsica, <ent type='ORG'>Savoy</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Malta</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>Tunisia</ent> and the <ent type='LOC'>Suez</ent> as far as ever from being satisfied, seeing
his new empire of sand and rock slipping away, decided to start on
<ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>. He proceeded loyally on the lines of the New Order, the New</p>

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<p>Chivalry. We saw that when he attacked <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent> he gave a most
solemn assurance to the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s that he did not covet and would not
try to get a single square mile of their territory. In September
(1939) he renewed this assurance in a diplomatic correspondence
with <ent type='GPE'>Athens</ent>. But after his cowardly attack on <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and his
failure to get a single advantage from it he had to find some way
of restoring his prestige. Some writers suggest that he was jealous
of <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and wanted to show that he could win glorious victories
without Hitler's advice or help. Doubtless he had some such idea,
but he met <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> at the <ent type='PERSON'>Brenner</ent> on October 4 and quite certainly
discussed with him the war he was to begin only three weeks later.</p>

<p> In this age of "invincible might," when you want to smooth the
way for the legions as much as possible, you do not "declare war".
Some think that that is a practice of the Age of Chivalry, the
spirit of which has been suffocated by our modern skepticism and
materialism. Rubbish. The Middle Ages were a time of equal
treachery and brutality. It was in that dreadful 19th century that
nations used to give each other warning that they were going to
war, and it is precisely to the standards of the Age of Chivalry,
slightly adulterated with Nordic valor -- this may give three
hours' notice, during the night, that it is opening fire -- that
our Clerical-<ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> age has returned. It is true that since the
<ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> people themselves had to be prepared, <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> got his
press to belch journalistic fire at the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s and writhe over the
"atrocities" the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s were committing; and as the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s had not
at that time any idea of the ease with which they could sweep the
<ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s before them they nervously disproved the lies and tried to
disarm the wrath of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>.</p>

<p> There was considerable strain but certainly no one thought of
war when the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> minister at <ent type='GPE'>Athens</ent> sent out invitations for a
very festive reception of <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> ministers and foreign
representatives at the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> Legation on the night of October 27.
If I here go into detail a little more than usual you will
understand what sort of thing it really was that the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>
archbishops and bishops boisterously approved, as usual, and the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> did not recognize as deserving of censure. The dance was in
full swing when, at 2:30 a.m., the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> minister politely
explained to his <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> guests that he must leave them for an hour.
All the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> ministers were present except General <ent type='PERSON'>Mataxas</ent>, the
<ent type='ORG'>Premier</ent>, and, as the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> minister was absenting himself to
deliver a virtual declaration of immediate war on them one will
probably have to search long in recent history to find a parallel
to this infamy of the Pope's ally.</p>

<p> At 3 a.m. he presented himself at the house of General <ent type='ORG'>Metaxas</ent>
and handed him an ultimatum, of the kind <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> had several times
delivered. It reaffirmed all the lies about atrocities and said
that unless the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s accepted this charge and handed over certain
strong strategic positions of theirs "to the <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>ns" by 6 a.m.
(three hours later) they were at war with <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>! When <ent type='ORG'>Metaxas</ent> asked
what these strategic points were the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> minister said that he
did not know. Thus do invincible legions, unlike effete
democracies, begin their wars. The invasion of <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>, which was
fully prepared, began at once; and the whole free world rejoiced
when, three weeks later, they heard that the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s had been
swept out of <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> and were making for the sea.</p>

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<p> It sounds, perhaps, rather cheap to say: The <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s, not being
<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ists, fight, I am, of course, thinking mainly of the contrast
with <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, not foolishly suggesting that <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
soldiers are less brave than others. But there is another aspect of
the matter, and it concerns us here. The treachery of <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> and
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> was, we saw, mainly due to a few highly-placed <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s who are, to say the least, in very good odor at the
Vatican. In <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> there were no <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in positions of
influence, and the support of the Vatican was entirely on the side
of the invaders. There was no Petain or <ent type='ORG'>Weygand</ent> to recommend the
abject surrender of the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> army, no Level to corrupt the
politicians and induce them to listen to the traitors, no <ent type='PERSON'>Darlan</ent> to
present the bitterest enemy of the country with its fleet, no
cardinal-archbishop to murmur to the people: God wills it. So the
<ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s fought, and with a heroism which surprised even those of us
who thought we knew them.</p>

<p> It will be convenient to reserve the Vatican's policy in the
<ent type='LOC'>East</ent> for adequate treatment in the last chapter of this book, but
a few words must be said here about its application to <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>. The
main <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> body in eastern Europe -- broadly, east of a line
drawn from the <ent type='LOC'>Adriatic</ent> to the <ent type='NORP'>Polish</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n frontier -- and
nearer <ent type='LOC'>Asia</ent> calls itself "<ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism" and, whereas it
used to be ruled by <ent type='ORG'>the Patriarch</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Constantinople</ent>, it has broken
into a number of national <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es (<ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent>n,
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n, and <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>). The name itself suggests that, as we shall see
later, the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es differ from the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> only in trifling points
of doctrine and, in fact, consider themselves more orthodox than
the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>. When I say "trifling" I speak of course, as an <ent type='NORP'>Ishmael</ent>.
The chief point of difference, which stirs passions to white heat
and has led to the shedding of much blood, is whether <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> (who
foresaw the 1700 years of bitter conflict) did or did not mean the
<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> bishops, when such a thing came into existence, to rule the
whole <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. The <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s repudiated the claim as soon as it was
raised in the second century and have repudiated it, on every note
of scorn, anger, and disdain, ever since. And during the whole
period there was a corresponding eagerness at <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> to bring them
into subjection. By centuries of experience the Vatican knows that
argument is useless, since its claim rests on a tissue of lies, and
it has at all times looked to national disasters to compel the
orientals to compromise with their faith.</p>

<p> We moderns are inclined to regard these things as lingering
follies of the Middle Ages, like astrology or occultism, and
impatiently ignore them, but they are vitally relevant to the
question of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> and the War. As I will show
later, <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> has looked to the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> more covetously than ever during
the last half century when the growth of the democratic element in
the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> owing to its position in <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States, the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent>
Empire, <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, and pre-<ent type='NORP'>nazi</ent> <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y disturbed the essentially
oriental mind of the Vatican. I travelled extensively in <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>
about Seventeen years ago and noticed that the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>, who were
then cooperating closely with the Vatican, were surprisingly busy
with indirect proselytism. Even in very backward Crete <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> nuns
had opened schools. The kind of education they gave was, of course,
ludicrous. There is in Candida a museum of quite exceptional
interest but when I ask one of these <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>-educated young women </p>

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<p>where it was, she said: "What is a museum?" It is a pure <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>
word, and she had lived within half a mile of this famous museum
all her life! The whole purpose of the education was to inspire
respect for <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>.</p>

<p> How the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>, under the direction of the Vatican, lost all
the ground they had gained, turned the respect of the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s into
hatred, and made way for the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s, by helping the <ent type='NORP'>Turks</ent> to
defeat the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s I have explained elsewhere. <ent type='GPE'>Constantinople</ent> was at
that time under an <ent type='ORG'>International Commission</ent>. The <ent type='NORP'>Turkish</ent> troops
were fenced off a score of miles away, and <ent type='GPE'>Constantinople</ent>, without
any sort of real force or authority in it, lay open to the large
<ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> army which I saw preparing to march upon it from <ent type='PERSON'>Adrianople</ent>.
But the Vatican was very strongly opposed to the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s taking over
the ancient metropolis of oriental <ent type='ORG'>Christendom</ent>, as this would have
given the heads of the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> a commanding position, in the
<ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> world. At this time, we must remember, the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
was in ruins both in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Turkey</ent>, and the heads of the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> were as eager to reorganize and control them as the Vatican
was.</p>

<p> Such was the situation in <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> before the war. The Vatican-<ent type='NORP'>French</ent> treachery had made the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s more bitter than ever against
<ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, and in 1940 there were only about 35000 <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in
the entire population of 6300000. The Vatican now looked to <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>
to promote its ambition to secure religious control of the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent>,
and its interests so closely coincide with the greed of the
<ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent>s that we are not surprised that in this case we do not get
even one of those unauthorized claims that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> sent a letter
of protest to <ent type='PERSON'>the King</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> about the repulsive treachery of
the attack on <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>. He very studiously said nothing.</p>

<p> I am not in these booklets trying to drag in the Vatican at
every step. There is no need for straining the evidence or starting
suspicions. When we tell all the facts, as so very few papers or
writers do, we find that there is not a section of the world-battlefield in which the interests of the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> do not coincide
with the aim of the brutal aggressions of the <ent type='ORG'>Axis</ent>. That is a
simple issue and easily proved. The recklessness of procedure is on
the part of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s who ask us to believe that, while there is in
fact this coincidence, the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is far too austere and mindful of
the interests of civilization to take advantage of it. We have seen
the opposite in every chapter.</p>

<p> But the hope of <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> and the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> that <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> and the
route to <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> and the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> could be secured without the
intervention of the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s, who would as usual take nine-tenths of
the spoils, broke against the splendid spirit of the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s. On
November 18 <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> again summoned the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> people to the
<ent type='GPE'>Palazzo Venezia</ent> and roared to them that his legions were marching
to victory. They were, as all the rest of the world knew, marching
-- and very smartly -- in the opposite direction and were beginning
to lose even <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>. One wonders what would have happened, and how
much the world-tragedy might have been shortened, if the <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slav</ent>s
had joined the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s at that time and the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> had moved more </p>

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<p>swiftly and generously to their aid. A splendid barrier of
mountains stretched from the <ent type='LOC'>Adriatic</ent> to the <ent type='NORP'>Aegean</ent>, and what the
<ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s, <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent>s, and <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> did with comparatively weak forces in
1941 shows what might have been done while the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s were still
fresh in 1940.</p>

<p> Am I going to drag in the Vatican here also? There is no need.
It is impossible to ignore its work when you consider all the
facts. It was the Vatican, acting, through the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Croats</ent> and
in the closest association with <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>, that prevented, or
played a very important part in preventing, the unity of <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent>, which, after the expulsion of the pro-<ent type='NORP'>German</ent> Regent, was
effected too late to save the country. That we shall see in the
next chapter, but a few words must be said about the base conduct
of Hungary and <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent> -- and with certain reserves we must add
<ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>ia -- which enabled <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> to move gigantic forces to the
very frontier of <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent> while still protesting that
he sought only to maintain peace in south-eastern Europe.</p>

<p> Hungary, which has saddened it's admirers, of whom I count
myself one, by licking the <ent type='PERSON'>jack</ent>-boots of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y and lying down to
be trodden on by its troops in their treacherous march eastward, is
in effect a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> country, and its <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> hierarchy has been
for some years in the closest touch with the Vatican. It therefore
lays no strain upon our judgment to find evidence of <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>
influence on its rulers.</p>

<p> The <ent type='NORP'>Magyars</ent>, a very estimable people and superior to the
<ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent>ns, <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent>s, and <ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>ians by their long absorption of
<ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>n culture, are, as everybody knows, of <ent type='LOC'>Asia</ent>tic origin, but
their subjection to <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> during centuries enabled the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> to capture most of them. <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s are, it is true, only 65
percent of the population, but Protestants are only 35 percent, so
that the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> hierarchy has almost a monopoly of ecclesiastical
power, and this is significant in a land that is still
overwhelmingly religious. In the year 1937 the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> held its
great international festival at <ent type='GPE'>Budapest</ent>, and Cardinal <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> went
in person to preside, The fact that it is an unusual honor for the
Papal Secretary of State to make much a journey shows what interest
<ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> had in the Church's policy in that country, and not even a
more solidly <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> country ever received the Pope's
representative more ceremoniously. The dictator, the fleetless
admiral, <ent type='PERSON'>Horthy</ent>, is a Protestant, but he lodged <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> in the
royal palace, and the foreign correspondents commented on the
cordial friendship that ensued.</p>

<p> It was the time when the simple-minded Mussolini's belief that
<ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> was leaving to him the control of <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, Hungary, the
<ent type='NORP'>Balkan</ent> countries, and the Near <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> was being rudely disturbed.
Hungary, which had followed his model of dictatorship, had for
years looked to him. Now that <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> had annexed <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> it had
reconsidered its interests and drawn nearer to <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y; and with
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> was, we saw, pressing hard at that time for an
ever-closer alliance. <ent type='PERSON'>Horthy</ent> dragged his country into an
enthusiastic cooperation with <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y in the destruction of <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>; and the Vatican, we also saw, was equally interested in
that shameless outrage.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
18
.
THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p> For historical reasons into which I cannot enter here the
<ent type='NORP'>Magyars</ent> hated the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> as much as they hated the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns, and
they would need little persuasion from <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> to throw open their
roads, rails, and river to the men who were going to crush
<ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, which was the ostensible aim at that time of
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y's thrust eastward. They hated also the <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent>s, and in this
case no one who has travelled from <ent type='GPE'>Budapest</ent> to <ent type='GPE'>Belgrade</ent> over the
immense fertile country they lost to <ent type='GPE'>Serbia</ent> can fail to sympathize
with them; though the chief guilt must be allotted to the
<ent type='GPE'>Versailles</ent> Conference. When, therefore, <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> so pitifully
failed in his campaign to win <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> for <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> and the Vatican and
<ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> proposed to shift his victorious armies from <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> -- no
foreigners had hailed the miserable Vichy group more loudly than
the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Magyars</ent> -- they strewed his route with flowers. The
first stage in the Papal crusade for the extinction of <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent>
in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was opening. We will, of course, not forget that <ent type='PERSON'>Horthy</ent>
and his sleek supporters were just as anxious for political reasons
to see the central shrine of Socialism destroyed and that they have
made great profit by their alliance with <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y. Yet the
coincidence of the interest of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> and its paramount
position in Hungary must be equally recognized. A few years after
the close of the last war, travelling through Hungary, I found the
<ent type='NORP'>Magyars</ent> looking to the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> more than to any other country in
Europe. <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> gold and ecclesiastical intrigue have changed all
that.</p>

<p> <ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>ia and <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent> have, like <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>, very small and
powerless <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> minorities: 45000 in 6500000 in
<ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>ia and about one million out of 15000000 in <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent>. More
than 80 percent of the inhabitants of each country belong to
national branches of the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> which broke away from the
<ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> Patriarchate at <ent type='GPE'>Constantinople</ent> in the nineteenth century.
Their interest from our present viewpoint is that they are sections
of that vast world of anti-Papal <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism which the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> hopes
to control through the victories of <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>. I could
quote evidence from the <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent> that there was much activity of
<ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent>n and Hungarian bishops at the Vatican, but we will not be
tempted to exaggerate their influence.</p>

<p> It may not be without interest to the reader to point out that
the Black (<ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent>) International in <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>ia is quite
as bad as its <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> counterpart. In both, countries the priests
have been silent while, in the last ten years, the freedom which
the people had won by their revolt against <ent type='NORP'>Turkish</ent> rule has been
strangled by Fascism, and in both the great body of the clergy are
as gross as they were in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> before the <ent type='EVENT'>Revolution</ent>. I liked the
<ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>s better than the <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent>s when I moved amongst them, but the
face's of the peasants in a crowd in which I was packed one holiday
are still vivid to me in their sheer animality. We hear of no
clerical protests against the appalling outrages these <ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>
peasants have committed in the villages they have taken from the
defeated <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent>s and <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s. For decades they have given, unrebuked,
free rein to the most violent inter-racial passions and religious
hatreds.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
19
.
THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p> The leading authority on religion in this part of the world,
<ent type='ORG'>Stephen Graham</ent>, himself a devout member of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>England</ent>,
which has tried for years to outstrip <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> in getting reunion with
them, assures us (<ent type='ORG'>Stephen Graham</ent>'s News-Letter, July, 1941) that
the <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent>n priests are as gross as those of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> were in
Tsarist days, yet that they and their people were disgusted with
the political -- I would almost say <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ist -- subservience of the
higher ecclesiastical authorities. The picturesque <ent type='PERSON'>Carol</ent> adopted
Fascism on <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> lines in 1939 and <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>sm of the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> type or
an iron tyranny, in 1940. He demanded and got the support of the
bishops. <ent type='PERSON'>Graham</ent> says:</p>

<p> "Both clergy and laity were angered and disillusioned by the
subservient attitude of the higher ecclesiastical administration to
the misdeeds of the government, which, indeed, reached such a point
that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> approved from the pulpit terrible murders and
horrors which had been unknown hitherto in the political history of
<ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent>" (p. 3).</p>

<p> The <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent>n <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> had so strongly supported the murderous
<ent type='ORG'>Iron Guard</ent> that the blackguards actually pressed it to canonize the
notorious <ent type='ORG'>Codreanu</ent>! This passage is taken from a religious news
sheet, the chief aim of which is to win an admiring interest in the
<ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es.</p>

<p> The <ent type='NORP'>Balkan</ent> problem -- the <ent type='NORP'>Balkan</ent> Cauldron experts have called
it for years -- is very complicated, and <ent type='GPE'>Versailles</ent> made it far
worse by its transfers of territory from one to another. All the
<ent type='NORP'>Balkan</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Danubian</ent> countries feared <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y, but the fate of
<ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent>, and later <ent type='GPE'>Norway</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Denmark</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> warned them
what to expect. They preferred the unheroic virtue of the <ent type='NORP'>Swiss</ent> and
<ent type='NORP'>Swedes</ent> who boast that they have kept out of the war. "Why should we
disturb you", a <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> recently said to one o these <ent type='NORP'>Swiss</ent> boasters,
"when you provide us with 4000000 slaves who feed themselves?"
Ingloriously their capitalists put on fat from war and food
supplies to <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y and close their eyes to what would happen if
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y won. One thing only could have saved the <ent type='NORP'>Balkan</ent>s: a loyal
and determined League. But the languid efforts of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and
<ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> to secure it were mocked by the customary vigor, ability,
and unscrupulousness of the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> effort to prevent it. Until 1940
this job had in the main been left to the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s, and I have
shown how <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> worked with them. This was most
notable of all in <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent> upon which, and <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>, the armored
divisions of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y now converged along the friendly route
provided by Hungary, <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>ia.</p>

<p> Chapter IV</p>

<p> CATHOLICS HAMSTRING YUGOSLAVIA</p>

<p> The uncouth name <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent> -- the land of the "Southern
<ent type='NORP'>Slav</ent>s" -- had to be coined by <ent type='GPE'>Versailles</ent> for the state, the bundle
of very varied and conflicting <ent type='NORP'>Slav</ent> provinces, which it created as
a reward for <ent type='GPE'>Serbia</ent> for its loyalty in the last war. It is true
that the overwhelming majority of the 14000000 people are <ent type='NORP'>Slav</ent>s,
but when you remember that the bitterly antagonistic <ent type='NORP'>Poles</ent> and </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
20
.
THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p><ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>ns are both <ent type='NORP'>Slav</ent>s you smile at the idea that this slender
racial bond must make for brotherhood. Blood may be thicker than
water but it has no priests to chant its virtues. It is far feebler
than the influence of a creed in an illiterate and priest-ridden
population.</p>

<p> And <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent> might be called a natural battle-ground of
creeds. The <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent>s -- they dislike the common practice of calling
them <ent type='PERSON'>Servians</ent> as the word is derived from the <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> for "slaves" --
the main body of the population and the highest (or least backward)
in culture, belong to a <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, a national branch of
the oriental <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity which spread over Europe from
<ent type='GPE'>Constantinople</ent> to <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> and the <ent type='NORP'>Balkan</ent>s. They form about half (48
percent) of the population but are the ruling class and have
certainly been autocratic in their treatment of the provinces which
were annexed to their kingdom by <ent type='GPE'>Versailles</ent> on the specious ground
that they were once part of the ancient kingdom of <ent type='GPE'>Serbia</ent> and their
people are of the same race as the <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent>s. The real reason was, as
I said, that during the last war the <ent type='ORG'>Allied</ent> statesmen had made
lavish promises of territory to keep <ent type='GPE'>Serbia</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> from
submitting to <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y. The <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s and <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s now, naturally,
posed as the redeemers of oppressed national fragments from "the
injustices of <ent type='GPE'>Versailles</ent>", and the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s have inflamed the
rebellious feelings of the minorities (whose territory they wanted
for <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>) almost from the date of <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> assuming power.</p>

<p> But what concerns us here is that to the racial subdivision
there was added the far fiercer flame of religious hatred, the feud
of the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> and the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es. On this the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s
relied, and they had the very zealous assistance of the local and
the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> hierarchy and the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>. I have described the historic
line of separation of the <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es as running,
broadly, from the <ent type='LOC'>Adriatic</ent> to the Russo-<ent type='NORP'>Polish</ent> frontier, which is
the general line, in the south, of division of the <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>
halves of the old <ent type='GPE'>Roman Empire</ent>. But the <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent>s always claimed the
land (<ent type='GPE'>Dalmatia</ent>) to the east of this which is now a province of
<ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent> and is as resolutely sought, on account of its good
harbors by the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s. <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> of this again are the non-<ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent>
provinces of Monte-negro, <ent type='GPE'>Bosnia</ent>, Herzegovina, and <ent type='GPE'>Slovenia</ent>. These
became part of the <ent type='NORP'>Turkish</ent> Empire in Europe, and the population of
<ent type='GPE'>Bosnia</ent> is still mainly <ent type='NORP'>Moslem</ent>. But at the break-up of the <ent type='NORP'>Turkish</ent>
Empire in Europe they passed to <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>-Hungary, and, though they
hated it, its priests "converted" large numbers to the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> faith.
It is in this northern fringe of <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent>, from the sea to
<ent type='GPE'>Slovenia</ent>, that the 5000000 <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, as against the
7000000 <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s of <ent type='GPE'>Serbia</ent>, live. You have a useful
analogy in the case of <ent type='NORP'>Irish</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s being controlled by <ent type='NORP'>English</ent>
Protestants, but in <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent> the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ists were much nearer in
number to the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent>, and their next-door neighbor, <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, was a
great power that had every interest in inflaming the religious
quarrel with the <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent>s. Of late years the next neighbor, Hungary,
has also intrigued to recover control of the provinces, and its
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> clergy have been just as interested as the politicians.</p>

<p> The situation is, as will now be understood, very complicated,
and the kingdom of <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent> has been so unstable since 1919 that
many experts predicted that the next European war would originate
there. It will be remembered that it was the assassination of an </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
21
.
THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p><ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>n Archduke in that region which gave the <ent type='ORG'>Kaiser</ent> the pretext
for starting the war of 1914. What the experts and the papers
always hesitate to point out, however, from fear of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
reprisals, is that the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> was just as much interested is
<ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> in detaching these <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> regions from the rule of the
<ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> clergy and bringing them under <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> and Hungary.</p>

<p> This intrigue naturally became more active as the Vatican
enlarged its ambition and began to dream of taking over the various
sections of the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> itself. As we shall see, the only
difference in point of doctrine, the manner of the "procession" of
the Holy Ghost from the Father and the <ent type='PERSON'>Son</ent>, is one of which these
illiterate masses cannot have even the glimmer of an understanding.
I doubt if you would get even one in 10000 educated <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n
Catholic's to give you an intelligible idea of the dogma. The hard
core of resistance is to the Pope's claim of authority, and this is
not a matter of argument. Count Sforza tells us in one of his works
that when he spoke to the <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent> Patriarch about the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> attempt's
to effect a union that prelate replied: "There is only one obstacle
-- the vanity of the Bishop of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>". In such cases <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> has always
found political power much more effective than persuasion.</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> was put in power by the army and the capitalists of
<ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> in 1924, and it was part of the program by which he had won
a large and empty-headed following of ex-soldiers that he would win
that part of <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent> of which, he said, the <ent type='GPE'>Versailles</ent>
Conference, had cheated <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>. Very widespread unemployment had
followed the demobilization of the army, and the unscrupulous <ent type='NORP'>Duce</ent>
easily traced this to the evil conduct of <ent type='GPE'>Versailles</ent>. <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>
intrigues on the other side of the <ent type='LOC'>Adriatic</ent> was doubled after the
infamous bargain of the Vatican with the <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent>s in 1929. By 1932
there were bloody riots against the pro-<ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s in <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent>,
and the religious element in the intrigue was so obvious that in
1933 the Jesuits and certain congregations of nuns were suppressed.
For the last ten years, in fact, the bitter quarrel of <ent type='NORP'>Croats</ent> and
<ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent>s which did more than anything to weaken the defence of the
country has been so patently religious as well as political that
the leading authority, <ent type='ORG'>Stephen Graham</ent>, an Anglo-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, says
(<ent type='ORG'>Stephen Graham</ent>'s News-Letter, March, 1940) of the struggle of the
<ent type='NORP'>Croats</ent>: "This is a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> movement and has to some extent
affinity to <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Budapest</ent>." He later explains this "affinity"
to mean that the movement was subsidized by <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> and Hungarian
gold, and he declares that half the bitterness is due to the feud
of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s and <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s: in other words, to
the greed of the rival branches of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> for
wealth and power.</p>

<p> Into the maze of <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slav</ent> politics which arose from this
situation I must not enter. <ent type='ORG'>Suffice</ent> it to say that the <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent>
government, which was more than half-<ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent>, relying on electoral
corruption and a muzzled press, was violently assailed by a
combination of <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent> radicals and agrarians with the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
<ent type='NORP'>Croats</ent>. This gave the Vatican an opportunity for one of those
underhand interferences in politics which, though heatedly denied
by <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s at the time, transpire by the dozen in later history.
Just as the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> had offered to sell -- to procure in return for
advantages to itself -- the docility of <ent type='NORP'>Irish</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s to <ent type='GPE'>England</ent> </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
22
.
THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p>and of <ent type='NORP'>Polish</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s to <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y, as we read in the official life
of <ent type='PERSON'>Leo XIII</ent>, or as it offered to keep the <ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Lorraine</ent>rs docile
to <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, so it would use its <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Croatia</ent> to
damp the fires of the agitation if the <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent> government would grant
its requirements. <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> was now Secretary of State and the
characteristic author of this proposal.</p>

<p> All through history the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> has made these secret
agreements with monarchs, while its local priest's posed as ardent
supporters of the people's patriotism. It makes a mockery of the,
parrot-cry that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> never interferes in politics. Political
activity is turned into a pure moral duty by recalling to the
people, when it is in the interest of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, such texts as
"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's" or "Be ye subject
to the higher powers." It is the duty of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> to enforce the
words of <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> and Paul.</p>

<p> The Concordat was secretly signed by <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> and the heads of
the <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent> government in 1935. It gave the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> a number of
new bishoprics and raised some bishops to the rank of arch-bishops.
It authorized priests to give <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> instruction to their
children in the public schools and undertook to enforce legally the
promise of an <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> partner to a mixed marriage that all
children of the marriage should be <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s even if the
<ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> parent repented of having given the promise. It even
embodied in the civil law the provision of the Canon Law that a
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> priest could not be condemned in the ordinary civil court
for certain grave offenses. It was a monstrous price to pay for a
promise that the <ent type='NORP'>Croat</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Slovene</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Dalmatia</ent>n priests would be
ordered to drop their political encouragement of the rebels and use
their influence to cheek the agitation. When, in fact, the terms
leaked out there was such widespread indignation that the <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent>
government dared not present the Concordat to <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent> for
ratification. The <ent type='NORP'>Croats</ent> themselves realized that it was an attempt
to sell their patriotism and resented it. When at length, in 1937,
the government, seeing the gathering gloom in Europe and the need
for political unity, presented to <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent> a <ent type='PERSON'>Bill</ent> based upon the
agreement with the Vatican, there was a procession of bishops and
priests through the streets of <ent type='GPE'>Belgrade</ent>, and <ent type='ORG'>the Holy Synod</ent>
excommunicated the <ent type='ORG'>Premier</ent> and all who voted for the <ent type='PERSON'>Bill</ent>.</p>

<p> The Concordat was never ratified but these facts will be
enough to convince any man of the justice of the title of this
chapter. Even when autonomy was granted to the <ent type='NORP'>Croats</ent> in 1939 the
religious feud continued. The situation of the country gave the
greatest concern in spite of the soothing assurance's of the pro-<ent type='NORP'>German</ent> Regent. <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> had gone and the fatal wound been inflicted
on <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> in 1938. The black shadow of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> militarism
crept nearer, and the statesmen of the western democracies hugged
their policy of appeasement like little girls hugging a pretty
doll. <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> struck in <ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>, and <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> completed the
destruction of <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> and began to talk about Dantzig.
Schacht, <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y's economic wizard, came to <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent> and bound
it to <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y by arranging a monopoly of half its trade. Yet, in
spite of the reiterated statements of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y that <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-Slovia was not in the least danger the wiser of its statesmen saw
through the trickery and tried in vain to unite with Hungary, </p>

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<p><ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>ia, and <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> for self-protection. There were
nominal adhesions, but signed and sealed international compacts
were by this time a dollar a dozen in Europe. <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> penetration
increased. The invasion of "tourists" went on, and the <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent>
Regent Paul advised the formation of a complete Corporative State.</p>

<p> I must confine myself here to the share of the Black
International in prolonging the period of discussion and weakness
until it was too late to save <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent>. The leader of the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Slovene</ent>s was, like the leader of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Slovaks in
<ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Slovakla</ent>, a political priest, Father <ent type='PERSON'>Koroshits</ent>, and he was
so open a <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> that he got himself appointed Minister of
Education in the <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent> government. The <ent type='NORP'>Croats</ent> continued throughout
1940 to agitate for independence and began to look to the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s
as deliverers from the tyranny of the <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent>s. When, in April, the
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s occupied the <ent type='NORP'>Croat</ent> provinces and they declared themselves
independent of <ent type='GPE'>Serbia</ent>, the declaration was followed by a band
playing "Deutschland Uber Alle's" (Annual Register).</p>

<p> The war was as repulsive in its beginning as all other
enterprises of the leaders of that New Order with which the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
co-operates everywhere. Too late the <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent>s realized the treachery
of the Regent and dismissed him (March 29, 1941). <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y and <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>
(which had been effusive in its professions of friendship
throughout 1940) fabricated the usual atrocity stories and posed as
the saviors of the poor down-trodden minorities. Historians will
one day raise a question of the sanity of this age of ours. Who,
they will ask, could be deceived by this trickery after four or
five un-scrupulous uses of it? Why make any excuse at all if you
mean to violate international law by deceiving your opponent until
the last hour? What can be the mentality of men who think that
neutrals must not say a word about the vile and unprecedented
outrages they commit because they blandly describe it as "total
war"? And what shall we say of bodies of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> clergy and their
bishops who will not even whisper that their "total war" is just a
reintroduction of savagery into warfare and who excuse their own
cowardice or self-interest on the plea that they are prevented by
their sacred office from interfering in politics?</p>

<p> The blow was launched on April 12. There are military expert's
today who wonder whether <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> did not make a fatal blunder in
engaging in the very costly campaigns in <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>
instead of advancing upon <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> in the spring: which is equivalent
to saying that he had not even the shadow of a military excuse for
his ghastly treatment of the two small countries. Certainly they
would not have deserted their neutrality if he had pushed on to
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> through Hungary, <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>ia. If the plan was to
level a route to <ent type='GPE'>Turkey</ent> and the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> it has obviously miscarried.
However, we are here concerned with the share of the Black
International.</p>

<p> There have been men and women of honor in all ages who have
refused to accept any profit or advantage from a dishonorable act.
The <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> and <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> never did. They at once
consolidated their gain in respect of the first of their aims: the
detachment of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s of <ent type='GPE'>Croatia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Dalmatia</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Slovenia</ent>.
<ent type='GPE'>Croatia</ent> was relinquished to the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s who created a kingdom for </p>

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<p>one of their princes and let the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> get busy everywhere.
So brutally was the work done that the highest authority was
conferred on a man, <ent type='PERSON'>Anton Pavelitsch</ent>, who was notoriously a leader
of a gang that specialized in the kind of murder that is politely
called assassination. A <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> court had found him guilty of
implication in the murder of <ent type='PERSON'>King Alexander</ent> and had sentenced him
to death. He had escaped and lived under the protection of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>
until the day of his usefulness to <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> and the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> arrived.</p>

<p> Under this <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> ruffian the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ist priests at once
entered upon the same kind of brutal coercion of members of the
<ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> as the <ent type='NORP'>Polish</ent> priests had conducted in the Galician
<ent type='GPE'>Ukraine</ent>. In November a <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> paper that is usually careful not to
offend <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, the News Chronicle, reported as follows:</p>

<p> "Four bishops and 100 priests of the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> at
<ent type='NORP'>Noshia</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Croatia</ent>, have been murdered, it is stated. The Patriarch
Gavrilo has been ill-treated and imprisoned in a monastery at
<ent type='GPE'>Belgrade</ent>, and the Archbishop of <ent type='GPE'>Zagreb</ent> has been whipped and
banished to <ent type='GPE'>Belgrade</ent>. The <ent type='GPE'>Serbia</ent>n priests have been replaced by
<ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>ians. The Hungarians also are stated to have hanged a number
of priest."</p>

<p> This news gets through because not a word in it suggests to
the general reader that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> is responsible for these
murders. In the light of the explanations I have given my readers
will have no difficulty. They will readily understand that the
<ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>ian priests who were substituted for the murdered <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent>
priests were certainly not priests of the <ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>ian <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
which is as hateful to the Vatican as the <ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>.
They were <ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> priests who had to be brought in because the
<ent type='NORP'>Croats</ent> are bitterly opposed to <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s. Notice also the reference
to the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Hungarians. Only a few months before Hungary had
signed a pact of lasting peace and eternal friendship with <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent>. Now its priest-ridden peasant soldiers behave like savages
to the <ent type='NORP'>Slav</ent>s who belong to the wrong <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>.</p>

<p> I, as, I said, do not drag in the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. You cannot lift a
corner of this veil of tragedy that lies upon Europe without
finding its ministers there, and always on the side of the <ent type='ORG'>Axis</ent> and
its <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> satellites. The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> papers and orators
tell you, is, and must be, neutral. Isn't it a singular thing that
wherever we turn we find it supporting the forces of barbarity and
drawing profit from their victories? A strange neutrality! The
plain truth is that it is neutral, and very scrupulously neutral,
only as regards the support of the forces that in the name of
civilization are trying to cheek the hordes of savagery. But we
shall see this more plainly if we devote a chapter to the
coincidence of the aims of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and those of its White
Knight, the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Jackal</ent>.</p>

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<p> Chapter V</p>

<p> THE PIPE-DREAM OF MUSSOLINI AND THE POPE</p>

<p> My experience in lecturing to skeptical audiences in <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>,
especially when questions are invited after the lecture, is that no
part of my message to them is so apt to be challenged as my
indictment of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. I very commonly find myself
contradicted by Freethinkers, sometimes lecturers or writers on
<ent type='ORG'>Freethought</ent>, who try to persuade the audience that from the
circumstances of my earlier life my knowledge is less broad than
theirs or that I have a "complex" in regards to the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent>. They
are apt to protest, with an air of superior knowledge or
liberality, that "one <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> is just as bad as another." How any
man can say anything so stupid when, as even school-children know,
the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> adds a score of absurd doctrines (confession,
indulgences, transubstantiation, etc.) to those doctrines which are
common to all the main branches of the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and most of
these doctrines are notoriously medieval fabrications for the sole
purpose of enhancing the power of the priests it is difficult to
understand. But the man who protests that he means that all
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es are equally bad in practice or in their mischievous
influence on life betrays how scanty and superficial is his
knowledge of history and his analysis of contemporary life,</p>

<p> The general public, relying for most of its information upon
a press which is compelled by <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> influence to suppress large
numbers of facts of vital importance, can be excused for ignorance
of the particular mischievousness of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent>. That
religion is of great importance in maintaining the standard of our
civilization is a cliche of modern editorials and is unfortunately
stated too often in recent sociological manuals; and to this is
very often added a special tribute to "the venerable <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of
<ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>", its "august head", and its international organization of (on
the latest claim I find in a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Directory) 360000000
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s. Hence such charges as I here bring against the Black
International seem to a member of the general public strange and
strained. He had understood that it was just a question whether the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> could or could not be expected to censure <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> or <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>,
and, in fact, that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> had frequently censured the former. I
have shown that in ten years of increasing menace to civilization
the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> has never censured either of the master-bandits except
when they refused to carry out their promises to itself, but it is
far more important to realize yet almost totally hidden from the
general public that the ambition of the Papal <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> coincides in
a remarkable manner with the ambition of the arch-murderers and
fully explain its cooperation with them.</p>

<p> This has appeared at each step we have taken in the present
booklet, and it will be well in conclusion to make it our direct
theme for a few pages. The ambition of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent>
coincides in two directions with that of the gangsters who
terrorize half the world today. The first point is that the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent>
deeply desires that, extinction of Socialism which <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent>s and
<ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s have accomplished in a score of countries and promise, if
their armies are victorious, to accomplish everywhere. I have shown
this, and will further enlarge on it in a booklet on <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. But I </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p>would remind the reader how this consistent and essential policy of
the Vatican is only a continuation of the policy of violence it has
sustained since it acquired power in the fourth century. From the
reawakening of Europe in the twelfth century to the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>
<ent type='EVENT'>Revolution</ent> it has had millions of victims; and of the half-million
unarmed men and women who have been put to death for demanding
democracy in the state and freedom of discussion in religion
between the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> and the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n <ent type='EVENT'>Revolution</ent>s all but a few
thousand were done to death by <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> authorities cooperating
with and instigated by their priests. That fact alone makes a
mockery of the foolish cry that "one <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> is as bad as another".
And if the leader will recall the facts I gave in the first and
second books of this series -- that <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries almost alone
support the enemies of the human race today, that they are
themselves on the Pope's recommendation or approval practically all
<ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent>, and so on -- he will have a much clearer understanding of
the world-situation. But I have space only to deal with the common
aim of <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> (and now of <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>) and the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, and this again
is to a great extent rooted in Rome's real hatred and dread of
democracy.</p>

<p> In their survey of the conflicts of national aims during the
last hundred years historians very commonly use a <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> phrase
(<ent type='PERSON'>Drang nach Osten</ent>), to express a fundamental cause of clashes. It
means "the drive to the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent>" and, since what we call the Far <ent type='LOC'>East</ent>
is shut out from the horizon of European powers by the vast
wilderness of eastern and central <ent type='LOC'>Asia</ent>, it means an urge to expand
south-eastward in Europe: the lure of the sun, <ent type='ORG'>the blue sea</ent>, and
the warm fertile lands that the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s felt 3000 years ago, that
led even <ent type='NORP'>Napoleon</ent> into a rash adventure, and that has been an
important factor in European polities ever since. <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y at the
close of the last century impelled <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> to adventures in the Far
<ent type='LOC'>East</ent> (and its first clash with <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>) so as to divert its ambition
from <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Turkey</ent>, and the Near <ent type='LOC'>East</ent>, which <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y itself
coveted.</p>

<p> Mussolini's dream of restoring the <ent type='GPE'>Roman Empire</ent> necessarily
included this expansion. He began, we saw, by dangling before the
eyes of the more thoughtless <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s a promise that he would get,
by war a few provinces (<ent type='GPE'>Dalmatia</ent>, Corsica, <ent type='GPE'>Malta</ent>, etc.) that ought
to belong to <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>. When he saw how supinely the western world
tolerated the growth of his army and his ambition he dreamed of
becoming an <ent type='ORG'>Augustus</ent> or a <ent type='NORP'>Diocletian</ent>. The <ent type='GPE'>Roman Empire</ent> once spread
over the <ent type='NORP'>Balkan</ent>s, <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>, and <ent type='LOC'>Asia</ent> Minor as far as <ent type='GPE'>Persia</ent>. The new
eagles of the new invincible legions would advance along the same
routes.</p>

<p> What concerns us is that the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> even more cordially
supported him in his larger and more mischievous ambition than in
the earlier. The Vatican was little interested in the transfer of
<ent type='GPE'>Dalmatia</ent>, <ent type='ORG'>Savoy</ent>, and Corsica, which were already <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, but the
dream of an <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> Empire such as <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> now imagined was a
very different matter. Just such a dream had fascinated the Vatican
itself for nearly a century. It was called the reunion of the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es, but the Vatican knew from painful experience of the
futility of its missionaries that it would accomplish nothing
without compulsion. It had in recent years an emphatic assurance of</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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<p>this. The <ent type='NORP'>Poles</ent>, as I explained elsewhere, took over several
million <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in the provinces which <ent type='GPE'>Versailles</ent> took
from <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> for them, but argument about the supreme position of
the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was found to be entirely useless and the most savage
persecution had to be employed to persuade some of them that the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is the real Father of All <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s.</p>

<p> <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> and other oriental <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s had, as I said, for the
most part repudiated the Pope's claim ever since it was fabricated
in the second century, but <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> had never despaired of securing
their submission. By the Middle Ages these easterners were so
hardened in their anti-<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> faith that argument was useless, and
the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s had to look out for political opportunities. Thus
<ent type='PERSON'>Innocent III</ent>, the greatest of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s, promised to overlook the
appalling behavior of his Crusaders in the thirteenth century --
instead of going to "the Holy Land" they took <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
<ent type='GPE'>Constantinople</ent> and robbed and desecrated its churches -- if they
would secure the submission of the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> to him. When the,
<ent type='NORP'>Turks</ent> in the fifteenth century swept over the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> Empire and the
<ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s appealed to the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> to rouse <ent type='ORG'>Christendom</ent> to a new Crusade
he tried to make it a condition that the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> should first
submit to him. The <ent type='NORP'>Turks</ent> mastered the whole of the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> empire and
for several centuries suspended communication between <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> and
<ent type='LOC'>West</ent>, but when, in the second half of the nineteenth century, the
<ent type='NORP'>Turks</ent> had degenerated -- that is to say, their <ent type='NORP'>Sultans</ent> and ruling
class degenerated, for the <ent type='NORP'>Turkish</ent> people were as robust and decent
as ever -- while the peoples of Europe got modern armaments and
detached province after province from the <ent type='NORP'>Turkish</ent> Empire, the
ambition of the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> revived.</p>

<p> It was then that <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>ia, and <ent type='GPE'>Serbia</ent> won
their independence of the <ent type='NORP'>Turks</ent> and the higher clergy in each
decided, in harmony with the patriotic movement, to declare their
independence of <ent type='ORG'>the Patriarch</ent> at <ent type='GPE'>Constantinople</ent> (the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>)
and set up the national <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> (and <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n), <ent type='GPE'>Rumania</ent>n, <ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>, and
<ent type='NORP'>Serb</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es. Since no such thing as a <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, much less
a supreme head of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, is contemplated in <ent type='EVENT'>the New Testament</ent>
-- the text about <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> and the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> is, of course, a late and
ridiculous interpolation -- they had the right to do so, but we
should understand that it is just these rival ambitions of the
higher clergy in each country that prevent union. The <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
likes to call it "reunion" but the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es were united on the
basis of Papal supremacy which <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> declares essential. The
statement on the subject in the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Encyclopedia, that in the
early ages all churches in <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> and <ent type='LOC'>West</ent> acknowledged the supremacy
of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> bishops is the high-water mark of "<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Truth",
for it is exactly the reverse of the truth. In doctrine there is
only one major point that divides the <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> and oriental <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s,
and no one but a trained theologian can understand the verbiage in
which the difference is expressed. According to the <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent>s the Holy
Ghost "proceed's" from (but is co-eternal with) the Father and the
<ent type='PERSON'>Son</ent>, but according to the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s from the Father only. Ask the most
cultivated or most zealous of your <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> friends what that means
and, if you do not give him time to consult his Encyclopedia -- ten
to one his priest cannot explain it -- <ent type='ORG'>yon</ent> will be entertained.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
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THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p> This break-up of the <ent type='NORP'>Turkish</ent> empire and of the spiritual
kingdom of the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> stirred the Vatican to a new hope. Leo
XIII began 70 years ago to make preparations for the conquest of
the eastern <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es, of which only small fragments here and there,
called Uniates, were subject to <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>. Benedict XV resumed the work
in 1917, when the <ent type='NORP'>Turks</ent> were hard pressed by the <ent type='ORG'>Allies</ent>, and the
late <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> Pius XI took a most ardent interest in the work. Special
colleges and sections of <ent type='ORG'>the Congregation</ent> of Propaganda at <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>
prepare priests for the great work of taking over. But the Vatican
is aware that there is not the least prospect of winning the
easterners by argument and it, as in all previous ages and as in
the "reunion" of its tens of millions of apostates in <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, and <ent type='NORP'>Spanish</ent> <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, bases its entire hope of a spiritual
conquest upon a political or military conquest of the <ent type='NORP'>Balkan</ent>
countries and the Near <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> by some power with which it has an
understanding. There are in these countries, apart from <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, to
which I will devote a special book, about 50000000 <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s and
only about 7000000 of them acknowledge the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>. It is, surely,
now as plain why the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> never condemned the brutal invasion of
<ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent> as why he never condemned the treatment of
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent>.</p>

<p> The <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writer W. Teeting (The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> in Politics)
gives another reason, and it is sound, though <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s do
all in their power to suppress it. He says of the late <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> (whose
policy the present <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> inspired and continues):</p>

<p> "The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is himself temperamentally more interested in the
question of <ent type='ORG'>Reunion</ent> with the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent>ern <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es and with conversions
in the mission field. He had hoped during his <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> to arrange
such a <ent type='ORG'>Reunion</ent> with the <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es so that the growth of
democratic <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism in <ent type='EVENT'>the New World</ent> would be counterbalanced"
(P. 3).</p>

<p> It is not a question of the temperament of any <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> -- for
that matter <ent type='PERSON'>Pius XII</ent> is far more aristocratic than Pius XI was --
but of the permanent policy of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent>, and it is
misleading to place so much stress on <ent type='EVENT'>the New World</ent>. Teeling points
out that <ent type='EVENT'>the New World</ent> or <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> has come in the course of modern
developments to have 400 <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> bishops against 650 in Europe and
says that the Vatican fears that this democratic New World may come
to have the majority. That is misleading because the great majority
of the 400 <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n bishops are in the <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> Republics -- there are
only 140 in <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States -- and they dread democracy and
loathe Socialism (its inevitable offspring in Vatican eyes) as much
as the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> does. At the very time when Teeling wrote his book they
were cooperating with the secular authorities in a truculent
suppression of democracy in nearly every Republic of South and
Central <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, and we know how they loathe it in <ent type='GPE'>Mexico</ent>.</p>

<p> Look at it this way. There are still about 280 bishops in <ent type='GPE'>Ital</ent>
and more than 150 in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent>, and they, like
the <ent type='NORP'>Spanish</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n bishops, have cooperated in the complete
destruction of democracy in their countries. The <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> bishops
of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y and <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent> have done the same. But the Vatican has no
hope of seeing an anti-democratic attitude in the 320 archbishops
and bishops of <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States and (except <ent type='GPE'>Quebec</ent>) the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
29
.
THE POPE AND THE <ent type='ORG'>ITALIAN</ent> JACKAL</p>

<p>Empire, for it would ruin the prospects of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in those
countries if they let it be known that it is anti-democratic. They
must even toll the grotesque lie -- since the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> obviously
supports Fascism in every country where it has power -- that the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> loves democracy and <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> principles are in perfect harmony
with it; What the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> loves is the gold of democracy -- of
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> -- but he and the miserable brood of <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>
bishops who fatten on it fear that, as they must continue to create
new bishops and cardinal's in these profitable, but poisonous
(democratic) sections of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> monopoly of power
and wealth is in danger and the essentially authoritarian teaching
of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> is menaced. For a time they saw the danger increase
as the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>y, and <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> had to meet the needs
of the new age by starting <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Socialist or <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
Democratic movements, as I have elsewhere described. That danger is
happily (from the Papal viewpoint) removed by the truculent
establishment of Fascism, but the future is uncertain. Hence the
need of a counter-balance by bringing in the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> and other
eastern <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es with their innumerable bishops and archbishops.</p>

<p> In this the Vatican betrays once more how false is that
reputation for psychology and "insight" which its propagandists
have won for it. It is building upon a theory of the psychology of
the <ent type='NORP'>Slav</ent> and of the oriental which has long been discredited. It
was common in the last century to say, and it is still far too
often said by literary men, that the <ent type='NORP'>Slav</ent> and the oriental mind is
docile, passive, and naturally submissive to authority. Not only
does the modern science of psychology reject these old superficial
theories of racial psychology but recent developments in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>China</ent>, and India ought to have taught every man how nonsensical
they are. It is just as absurd to credit the Vatican with broad
outlook and penetrating insight. These <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> parasites are a
bunch of <ent type='NORP'>Chinese</ent> mandarins who are an anachronism in the modern
world.</p>

<p> It, at all events, explains the coincidence of the policy of
the Vatican with that of the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>jack</ent>al. The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> refuses to
condemn he rape of <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent> -- a monstrous moral outrage -- though
<ent type='NORP'>British</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s clamor for a condemnation, and, at
the very time when Cardinal Hinsley assures them that he heard the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> call it a "barbarous outrage", the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> bestows the Golden
Rose on <ent type='LOC'>the Queen</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> as <ent type='ORG'>Empress</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>. He get's his
"unauthorized" agents to say how he was disturbed by <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>
forcing the gates to the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> (<ent type='GPE'>Albania</ent>) and does not say a word
about <ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent>, but his whole <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> hierarchy
boosts the campaign, and his priests and nuns follow in the wake of
the barbarized soldiers. He is following the whole Drive to the
<ent type='LOC'>East</ent> with the liveliest hope and expectation. He is not a Man of
Blood like <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> or <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>. In the time-honored fashion of the
<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> he gets "the secular arm" to shed the blood for him.</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> Reproducible <ent type='ORG'>Electronic Publishing</ent> can defeat censorship.</p>

<p> **** ****

Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
30
</p></xml>