When we were poor together
McCarthy, Abigail
Casaroli a volume like Acheson's Present at the Creation or Kennan's Memoirs. Both the ecclesiastical and the diplomat- ic world will be poorer on this account, so it is necessary to rely on the...
...Here Casaroli became the key figure for the next twenty-five years...
...The policy, like its secular analogue of "drtente," had its critics both at the level of principle and tactics...
...By nature and structure, Vatican policy is principal- ly-overwhelmingly-determined by popes, not career diplomats...
...First as secretary for the Council of Public Affairs (the "for- eign ministry" of the Vatican) and then as secretary of state, he initiated the contacts with Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia...
...For many people it has begun to feel like more than a recession...
...Montini's proposal in the mid-1950s to open a dialogue with the Communist regimes, as a way to gain a limited freedom for the church, earned him a premature exo- dus from the center of policy to the arch- bishopric of Milan...
...and under the even more expansive Eastern policy of Paul VI, he helped shape what others called "Vatican Ostpolitik...
...others must pro- vide strategy, tactics, and implementation...
...Stehle's extensive analysis records Casaroli's patient perse- verance, his substantial accomplishments, and his rare moments of discreet response to his critics...
...Both the ecclesiastical and the diplomat- ic world will be poorer on this account, so it is necessary to rely on the commentary of others like Hansjacob Stehle's The Eastern Politics of the Vatican 1917-1979 or Peter Nichols's The Politics of the Vatican...
...His retirement raises a final question...
...The story they and others record is that of a man shaped in the old order ~ho did not remain its captive...
...And another bank in trouble...
...Her son, a broker of the yuppie generation, laughs...
...John XXIII went sub- stantially beyond anything proposed in the 1950s...
...Her reason: "I want to have some money in the house in case the bank closes...
...The shift from the old to the new eccle- sial order initiated by John XXIII in 1959 included an acceptance of the Montini strat- egy toward the East...
...His first twenty years were in the service of Pius XII's mortal combat with totali- tarianism, particularly in opposition to Soviet attempts to repress and eradicate the role of religion in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe...
...Casaroli respond- ed to both criticisms, maintaining that no principle was being sacrificed and that a review of the negotiations would illustrate their utility...
...One of my friends went to her bank the other day and took out $500 in $100 bills, not to spend but to stash away...
...At the level of tactics, Casaroli had to defend the policy of dialogue and negotiation against the formidable skepticism of Cardinal Wyzynski of Poland, who feared that too much would be traded away...
...Secular diplomatic figures are often used in different ways...
...In Pacem in terris he provided a theoretical foundation for a shift in tactics by drawing the distinction between the false philosophical principles that often are the basis for historical movements, and the change the latter undergo because of events and circumstances...
...Abigail McCarthy WHEN WE WERE POOR TOGETHER LESSONS WE MAY NEED AGAIN he economic analysts are still telling us that it isn't a real recession, that it will bottom out soon, that things will be on the upswing by the end of the year...
...It feels like a depression...
...The dramatic contrast in the 1970s, of a Cardinal Mindzenty openly in resistance to any shift from his life-long defiance of communism, and Casaroli seeking to chip away the walls imprisoning the church in a series of arduously negotiated agreements represented the poles of the argument...
...Given this decade-long debate about the policy with which Casaroli was so iden- tified, many questioned whether a Polish pope would retain him...
...But Casaroli has continued to be an essential architect in a policy whose wisdom has been vindicated in the "new order...
...Precisely because a memoir is unlikely, it would be a double loss if the ecclesial community failed to make use of this much intelligence and experience...
...Wyzynski was not immune to making agreements himself with the Polish gov- ernment, but he feared that outsiders----even Vatican diplomats--would not weigh the OF SEVERAL MINDS costs and benefits wisely...
...From all appearances Casaroli retired at a very young seventy-six...
...At the level of principle, some saw "Ostpolitik" as simply a sellout...
...they are given platforms to share hard-earned wisdom and they are given assignments in critical situations...
...Popes establish a policy...
...Oh, mother," he says, "there's no 8 February 1991:89...
...By the end ofPius XII's papacy, how- ever, Casaroli was among those--led by Montini who saw the need for a different style in addressing this menace, even if basic principles remained constant...
...In a series of ceremonial events, from the Vatican to Poland to the United States, over the past year, Casaroli's contribution has been publicly acknowl- edged...
...For John XXIII the dis- tinction provided the reason for engaging the Communists in dialogue to achieve practical, concrete objectives like prevent- ing war and opening living space for the church in Communist countries...
...But Casaroli's role in serving popes of different diplomatic visions is the fascinating story of his life...
...It was a symbolic vote of confidence for the strategy of dia- logue when John Paul II named him sec- retary of state within days of the pontiff's election...
...he represented the Holy See in signing the Nonproliferation Treaty (in Moscow) in 1968...
...Yet every morning we wake up to the ominous headlines: another bankruptcy, so many thousand laid off at a financial institution, another few hundred at a local business, advertised auctions of the homes of defaulting mortgagees or of a developer's unsold new houses...
...John com- plemented his theoretical assertion with a series of initiatives to open the dialogue of Catholicism and communism...
...In the last decade, John Paul II has been the catalyst and the champion of change in Eastern Europe, some argue sec- ond only to Gorbachev...
Vol. 118 • February 1991 • No. 3
