THE INROADS OF MARXISM

...Italian Catholic lay university students often express this complaint, after having examined these documents...

...Marxism, paradoxically, appears to be the religion of the cultural elite and the "oppressed" proletariat...

...Marxism, with its new gospel, prophets, visions, promises, festivals and koinonia has become and continues to become the religion replacing Catholicism for millions of Italians...

...Such a clean-up operation, similar to what has taken place in the U.S...

...In this respect, there is much to learn from studying the successful growth and dynamic appeal of Italy's rival "religion...

...therefore it must be carried out even if somebody has to foot the bill, even if many individuals have to be replaced...

...The Christian pemocrats are still the main bulwark against a Communist takeover in Italy...

...Many simple, well-meaning people, who had felt that the battle was lost, have awakened,' have understood that it is still possible to resist...

...Such a process makes for internal strains, even pitiless personal, fights as it has happened among the Christian Democrats in recent months...

...Cardinal Poletti, in the same interview, explained that, like other prelates, he was impelled "to speak up and do so most clearly by realization that, if the church remained silent, the feeling would solidify that the Communist advance is irreversible-and this is not true...

...Their ability to communicate effectively will be of critical importance...

...Crises, however, demand concreteness for their resolution...

...In fact, I have already noted that just a few, clear words can have a far-reaching echo...

...Last June, the Communist party, in regional and administrative elections polled over 33 percent of the votes, only two percent less than the long dominant Christian Democrats...

...With further gains in the local elections scheduled to take place next June in Rome and other areas as well as in the general election due in the "spring of 1977, the Communist party could easily become the largest force in the country and would be able to press successfully its bid for a governmental coalition with the Christian Democrats...

...They have not yet told the people that the party is airing its dirty linen in order to turn out clean laundry from now on...

...Here in Italy, too, where the Communists have long been in charge of local administrations, as in Emilia and Tuscany, the social welfare agencies set up by religious institutions have been gradually pushed aside and deprived even of the contributions that according to the law should accrue to all such agencies...

...In February 1974, Cardinal Poletti had organized a conference which turned into an impassioned denunciation of Rome's social ills and therefore was criticized by right-wing representatives of the Christian Democratic party which for many decades has been largely responsible for running the city's affairs...

...The Christian Democratic party needs to renew itself, to renew its programs as well as its leaders and cadres...

...But what has failed to emerge so far is a determination to pay more attention to the country's problems...

...Conditions in Italy, so different from those obtaining in the United States, do not allow for diverse parties to alternate in governing the country and thus for the recurrent changes and almost automatic rejuvenation that this alternation involves for the parties themselves...

...The school system, the mass media, literature, the newspapers and films make their converts annually to the marxist world-view...

...But to perform effectively, the Christian Democratic party must undergo some radical changes...

...Cardinal Poletti recalled this episode: "If many Christian Democrats failed to understand or accept the Conference's true significance, the Communists have been quick to distort and exploit it by claiming that "Poletti is on our side,' by trying to turn me into a symbol of the compromise, of the accord with them...

...That's why I am sure that if the Christian Democrats manage to again convince the voters of their commitment to serve concretely the people, it can recoup ground, especially* on the left, that is on the most exposed and truly decisive front of the struggle now under way in Italy...

...Cardinal Poletti explained that this concern "is based on matters of doctrine and is sustained by experience showing that whenever Communism wins control the church is in trouble...

...Yet those who look for inspiration and guidance to Christian teaching are convinced that it can provide a full and adequate answer to all the problems of mankind...

...they seriously question the value of proliferating documents whose basic content consists of commonplaces, self-evident first principles, and truisms so abstract in character as to be universally applicable to any time and place, suggesting the broad, vague vision from a lofty mountain...

...That's why we want to make it unmistakably clear that, if the Communist party should win a government role, it would happen not only against the church's wishes but over its opposition...

...On November 9, in a homily delivered at St...

...John navone...

...This is not the image which is projected by the church and its leaders...

...Marxism seems to be the basic source of inspiration for contemporary Italian culture...

...COMMUNISM IN ITALY THE INROHDS OF MARXISM The next Pope will have to be a non-Italian, according to many who fear that an Italian Pope in a Communist Italy would not be sufficiently free of marxist pressures to govern in the best interests of the universal Church...

...In the interview the Cardinal said that "The prospect that Italy, whose culture is so deeply steeped in Catholicism, should pin her hopes for the future to an atheistic doctrine, is a source of great sorrow and concern for all of us, from the Holy Father down...

...Now that the Italian Communists are driving to win a role in the national government and in the municipal administration of Rome, the city of the Popes, concrete steps are being taken by churchmen to stop them...

...Thus, in my case, to remain silent would have amounted to becoming an accomplice...

...Cardinal Poletti did not single out the Christian Democratic party as the only one that should be backed by voters opposed to Communism: "I am not sharing the views of those who in Italian political jargon are termed 'integralidtic' I acknowledge that there are other parties, beside the Christian Democrats, which are sincerely devoted to democratic principles and respectful of all human values...

...We have still room," according to Cardinal Poletti, "for standing fast in defense of both individual and institutional freedoms, for upholding our concept of liberty sanctioned by the Italian Constitution...

...By continuing to use the arguments and methods that helped them to rally a majority of the votes in the late 1940s, the Christian Democrats are relying on spears to fight the battle of the atomic age...

...It appears to be the religion of the people and for the people, whose leaders are very much in touch with the people...

...And our adversaries have been disturbed, because silence and ambiguity suit them...

...such ability will reflect the extent to which they are in touch with their people, with their concrete problems, values, aspirations, sensitivities and language...

...John Lateran Square, Paul VI himself endorsed recent statements by Cardinal Poletti, expressing alarm over the spread of Communist influence in Italy and emphasizing that "Marxism in theory and Communism in practice are irreconcilable with the Gospel...

...The outcome of the last elections, according to the Cardinal, "has reflected mostly a sense of lassitude, a lack of confidence...

...An unidentified Vatican monsignor, holding a key post, informed Wollemborg...

...Actually, this becomes even more a duty when the people involved link their political appeal to a Christian inspiration...

...The Rome Daily American's editor, Leo L. Wollem-borg, recently interviewed Ugo Cardinal Poletti, the Pope's vicar for Rome, to learn more about the church's action to defeat the Italian Communists...

...It would be folly to encourage or countenance the formation of some other Catholic party especially at a time when any such development would automatically make the Communists the largest Italian political force...

...in connection with Watergate, is necessary to regain credibility and trust...

...Even the language of many church documents tends to reflect the same remoteness...

...Cardinal Poletti commented on the recent electoral setbacks of the Christian Democrats: "Unquestionably, this political force, which grew up on the strength of its Christian inspiration and opposition to Marxism, has been worn out by thirty years of running national affairs...

...The church suffers from a critical communications problem, a lethal problem for any organization committed to the communication of the Good News and its saving way of life...

...The remoteness projected by the church leadership is aptly suggested by the papal title, "The Supreme Pontiff," by the other titles of leaders, such as "His Eminence" and "His Excellency" -all denoting a great altitude, closeness to God and a distance from man...

...The Italian Catholic hierarchy and Episcopal Conference, it would appear, will issue more pressing appeals for a mobilization of Catholic voters against the rise of Communist' power and influence as the next crucial elections draw nearer...

...From then on," says a top-ranking Vatican official whom Wollemborg does not identify, "the pattern would be similar to developments in the early 1920s when fascism, after pledging to operate within a democratic, multiparty framework, went on to force upon the country an authoritarian regime...

...Another high-ranking Vatican official affirmed the need for new leaders able and willing to project an updated image of the party and above all to appeal to young Italians, many of whom are unfortunately attracted by the Communists...