Papal bull as fascists' friend

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Cardinals with Mussolini, giving the fascist salute NICE 1260 3 Empire 0 M O l agosta z •910 Map showing original sice of the Papal States The adulations of Pope Paul which have appeared throughout the capitalist press since his death, the tedious coverage of his saintly life, and the speculation about his successor have possibly outdone the excesses which accompany a royal death.

This man, who has been worshipped by reformist party leaders and Stalinists alike as 'peace loving' and 'progressive' , was the head of one of the most viciously reactionary international institutions: an institution which controls the lives of 700 million people.

All religions are built up around rhetoric about love and spirituality.

By concentrating the minds of the masses on the 'other world' and convincing them that happiness cannot be sought on earth, religion is used by the ruling class to divert the attention of the oppressed from their material deprivation.

Marx described religion as the 'opium of the people': it numbs the mind to create false sensation of happiness, whatever the reality.

The Catholic church is particularly experienced at dispensing its opiate: it's been at it for 2,000 years.

Spiritual drugging

The elaborate mystical ceremonies, complete with intensely emotional music, and wafts of incence are the most unsophisticated form of spiritual drugging.

However, behind the cardinals' purple robes, the miracles, the processions and the glorification of a gory execution 2,000 years ago, lie the much more worldly corridors of the Palace of Rome.

The cynical dealings and power-seeking of the Vatican has not changed in essence since the Borgias murdered their rivals for the papacy during the Middle Ages.

Manoeuvres

The mysticism that surrounds the Vatican cannot conceal the reality of the church's manoeuvres to preserve its wealth and power.

Battista Montini, as he was Known before he who found himself a post in the Catholic diplomatic service in 1922 before he had even finished his theological studies.

His father, a newspaper editor who used his paper as a rallying point for anti-Communists, •was a cofounder of the Partito Populare, the forerunner of the Italian Christian Democrat party.

One of Montini's first jobs for the papal court was the control of FUCI, the Catholic youth organisation: and it was through these links that he formed an alliance with Aldo Moro, the man, recently killed by the Red Brigades, who was to become Christian Democrat Prime Minister of Italy.

The links with Moro and the Christian Democrats are significant because they relate to one of Montini's most important traits: his crusading anti-communism' Anti-communist As Archbishop of Milan, he declared himself 'Archbishop of the workers' and sought to undermine Communist influence in the factories by organising clerical anti-Communist demonstrations and building up the Christian Democrats while at the same time proclaiming his sympathy for the trade union movement.

Like the rest of the bourgeoisie and Catholic Church in Italy, he saw the rise of fascism as a bulwark against the Communist atheism which he saw as poisoning the minds of the working class.

Although bands of fascist black-shirts displayed their anti-clericalism by beating up • FUCI members and breaking up meetings of Catholic Action, Mussolini knew he needed the support of the Catholic church to consolidate his hold over the Italian state-and the Vatican was quite willing to give that support in return for certain freedoms for itself.

Mussolini curbed the actions of his anti-clerical followers and made Catholicism the state religion, integrating the Catholic church into the fascist state.

The most significant point in this process was the signing of the Lateran agreement in 1929.

Since the unification of Italy in 1870 the popes had declared themselves 'prisoners of the Vatican' and refused to recognise the new Italian kingdom.

Their reason for this was quite simple: the process of uniting the various small states that now make up Italy had reduced the central wealth and power of the pope and Catholic church.

Lateran treaty

Prior to 1870, the pope had been ruler of the Papal States, a large area around Rome, but since unification, this area belonged to and was under the jurisdiction of the King. The popes wanted their wordly power returned-and Mussolini was willing to return it.

By the terms of the Lateran Treaty, the Italian fascist state recognised the sovereignty of the pope over the Vatican state, and paid him £30 million for the property he had lost through the reduction in the size of the Papal state.

The Concordat that accompanied the treaty confirmed Catholicism as the religion of fascism, and led to repressive enactments on matters such as divorce.

Non-Italian speaking priests were forbidden to have parishes-an outright attack on the German and Slav minorities who lived in the Northern and Eastern parts of Italy.

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Montini, for his part employed his journalistic talents in a vigorous defence of the Lateran Agreements to silence those who pointed out the contradictions between Christian Love and the brutality of the fascist regime.

The reigning pope, Pius XI, described Mussolini as a man sent by God-no doubt to save Italy from a militant working class.

Vatican officials also supported the invasion of Ethiopia: one of Montini's predecessors as Archbishop of Milan described the March on Rome (which brought Mussolini to power) as having:

... prepared souls for the redemption of Ethiopia Ottoman A MARINO PAPAL STATES Aud 1 (Negritter : Migriber delester ,by the •latera BENt •EN 101861)

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Augus SICIL Daise rela- 1. '''' a It drummine Haliar game, 191 The FICATION of TAL' 1859: 1870 with dans ofo from the bondage of slavery and heresy and for the Christian renewal of the ancient Empire of Rome".

The adulation of the Roman empire combined with Catholic crusading zeal was a hallmark of Italian fascist propaganda.

The alliance with the fascists was not just a temporary aberration on the part of the Catholic Church.

At decisive moments, the church will always side with the capitalist class against the labour movement.

One of Pope Paul' 's most influential decisions was his decree humane vitae (on human life).

Household slavery

With that decree-which must be obeyed on threat of excommunication since the pope is held to be infallible -millions of women in the Catholl church and in Catholic countries have been condemned to lives of household slavery.

According to the teaching of Pope Paul. abortion and all forms of "artificial' contraception are interfering with the lifegiving process. which only God is entitled to control.

Repressive

Such a decree was very welcome to the heads of government in Catholic capitalist countries, eager to control the lives. of their women workers and conceal unemployment by confining women to their homes.

The Catholic church is also. of course. directly repressive of homosexuals, who. they declare, violate God's plan of nature.

By attacking women and gays in this way, the church holsters up the bourgeois ethics of the family. the hasic unit of capitalist society.

Not satistied with threatMussolini, giving the fascist ening erring Catholics with excommunication and existence in hell after death.

Pope Paul and his cohorts have always been 'keen to impose a little of hell's suffering on earth for those who disobey their edicts (whether Catholic or not).

In Italy, this has meant close collaboration between the Christian Democrats and Pope Paul's Vatican. to impose and preserve repressive laws, particularly on abortion. contraception. divorce and homosexuality.

An important element of this has been the 'historic compromise between the Christian Democrats and the Italian CP.

Aldo Moro. Pope Paul's closest friend from the 1920s. was famous principle architect of this understanding with the Corollary The alliance between the Stalinists and these Catholic Tories has its corollary with the church.

The Stalinists' eagerness to peacetully coexist with the bourgeoisie in each capitalist country and with imperialism internationally leads them to make deals with the church. which in its own particular way is an agency of imperialism.

Berlinguer, the co-architect of the historic compromise on the Stalinist side. mourned the passing of a 'Pope of peace. He is not alone in the Stalinist camp. however.

Throughout the world. Stalinist leaders have been eager to find progressive aspects of the Catholic church. The reaction of President Tito perhaps sums it up:

"All mankind has suffered an irreparable loss in the death of a convinced champion of peace and understanding™ The working class has not sutfered an irreparahle loss. Pope Put and any other minion of Catholasm does not serve lied pege understanding of mankind but clearly serves the capitalist class

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