Cardinal Gasparri Resigns
CARDINAL GASPARRI RESIGNS WHEN Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, Vatican Secre- tary of State since October, 1914, retires from active service to a life of quiet study at Castle De-grado, practically the...
...but the Italian word "fortunati" really means "caused by fortune...
...Sensing the value of public opinion, willing to stake their reputations on the cause of world peace, convinced also that a code of international law is one of the best possible safeguards against conflict, both have been outspoken foes of reactionary nationalism...
...And the Imperial Chancelor delayed so long that the opportunity passed...
...Italy succeeded in preventing a papal delegate from bringing the question up at the Versailles Conference...
...Today Russia is the only power definitely at war with Catholic Rome...
...The third principle has been the need for church unity...
...Peace remained the goal of Vatican diplomacy, culminating in the famous peace proposals of 1918...
...For more than fifty years the Church had refused to accept the Italian Law of Guarantees and had lived in virtual imprisonment...
...While one cannot say that Cardinal Gasparri formulated these principles, it is certainly he who has done most to translate them into efficacious practice...
...The difficulties are apparent from many such anecdotes as the following: A papal letter of November 8, 1918, characterizes the Italian victory as "for-tunati successi...
...It is now relatively easy for the Church to establish its relations with civil governments on the basis of this law, rather than upon outmoded or conflicting precedents...
...There are many who believe that the Papal Secretary of State is the greatest of them all...
...Cardinal Gasparri nevertheless strove to establish cordial relations with the League...
...In 1920 twenty-six states had reestablished diplomatic relations with the Vatican, and a year later the number was thirty...
...Concordats-or legal agreements with civil governments-were signed with Bavaria, Poland, Lithuania, Roumania and several Latin-American nations...
...A papal nuncio was appointed to Berne, after that post had been vacant for fifty years...
...When the victory had been gained by the Allies, the Vatican made an effort to become a party to the negotiations establishing the League of Nations, but was barred from participation by Italy which feared that the Roman question would be introduced...
...Shortly afterward a well-informed correspondent reported: "It is notorious that Cardinal Gasparri is frequently the target chosen by the more aggressive nationalists, possibly because of the favor shown by him to the League of Nations and to a policy of peace...
...Though the papal condemnation of the French Action Franchise was primarily spiritual in motive, few have doubted that the Vatican wished to cut the Church loose from royalistic fetters...
...It will be remembered that during 1870 an English Protestant, David Urquhart, called upon Pope Pius IX with the request that the Vatican Council should issue a pronouncement on what was the Jus Gentium, the law of nations...
...Meanwhile relations between the Holy See and civil governments had greatly improved...
...Appointed to the task by Pope Pius X in 1904, he completed it by 1918...
...Later the Holy See addressed a note to Geneva, protesting against British monopoly of the commission to control Palestine...
...The first is a deepened allegiance to law...
...But with the coming of the war, and of Cardinal Gasparri, the situation suddenly changed...
...Among the lesser ties which bind Rome to Geneva one may note the appointment of Professor Gianfrancheschi to the commission established to reform the calendar, and the attendance of Catholic missionaries at the Opium Conference...
...How to regain the friendship of the oriental Orthodox Churches, separate since the collapse of the Byzantine empire, has been a query of sovereign importance...
...It is obvious that Cardinal Gasparri never made a secret of his fondness for American ways and traditions...
...A relatively small book of 488 pages now lists all current law under 2,414 canons...
...The Lateran treaties were signed on February 11, restoring the political independence of the Holy See and binding Italy to the terms of a concordat...
...Wilson, Lloyd George, Clemenceau, Sonnino have left the stage, and only Briand remains...
...It was Cardinal Gasparri who shouldered the heaviest burdens created by the writing of the new code...
...CARDINAL GASPARRI RESIGNS WHEN Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, Vatican Secre- tary of State since October, 1914, retires from active service to a life of quiet study at Castle De-grado, practically the last of the great wartime statesmen will have turned their work over to other and younger men...
...Then he served for a time as professor of canon law at the Catholic Institute of Paris...
...However that may be, the progress achieved by Vatican diplomacy since he came to the helm has been nothing short of astounding...
...In the end the world will appreciate the breadth of vision with which the Vatican has sized up the fusion of patriotic and religious feeling in those vast countries east of Constantinople which are stirring to new life...
...It is true that the Holy See openly formulates no diplomatic policy...
...President Wilson, however, replied in the negative, urging that a preliminary reform of the German government was necessary...
...Precisely seven years later, the news that an agreement had been arrived at between the Vatican and the Quirinal was announced...
...But it appears most clearly in his fidelity to the aspirations of democracy throughout the world...
...One cause of this revival of a traditional custom was no doubt the abrogation of the rule preventing foreign rulers from visiting the Quirinal while in Rome, but another was the increasing conviction that Rome was a moral power beyond comparison with any other...
...Owing to events, the suggestion came to nothing, but it has been remembered...
...Similarly Fascist Italy has not infrequently attacked the views and even the person of Cardinal Gasparri...
...Indeed, it is no secret that the two men have cordially approved each other's actions...
...The Church has contented itself with such gestures of amity as Russian and near East relief, dispensed with unstinting generosity, and with avoiding everything which might be interpreted as catering to one or the other European nationalistic urge...
...During the war the greatest tact was required to avoid giving any impression of favoritism to either side...
...But when Pius XI was elected Pope, he walked out upon the loggia of the Vatican basilica and gave the universal benediction to the crowd below...
...These enumerated seven points on the basis of which a cessation of hostilities might be arranged...
...The two had worked together under Cardinal Rampolla...
...Circumstances were such that even the astute statesmanship of Leo XIII was powerless to break the deadlock...
...Although resolutely committed to the stand that allegiance to Rome is a cardinal principle of Christendom, the Papacy has maintained a friendly attitude toward efforts to reunite Protestant groups...
...During 1907 he was made a Cardinal, and when Benedict XV was named Pope he immediately appointed Cardinal Gasparri his Secretary of State...
...The result was a defeat of the original Balfour plan, and recognition of the traditional rights of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land...
...if this be translated, as it frequently was, as "fortunate successes," an implication of rejoicing would be given...
...While the first has been more widely discussed, the second-signed on June 14, 1929-is in many respects the more interesting...
...One feels, however, that since 1914 three major principles have guided its conduct...
...From 1898 to 1901 he was apostolic delegate to Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, in all of which countries he became very popular...
...Born at Capovalazza de Ussita on May 5, 1852, he continued his education until he had received the degree of doctor of philosophy, theology and canon law from the Pontifical Seminary in Rome...
...Little by little the way was cleared for a new codification of canon law, as the official legislation of the Church is called...
...Meanwhile the work of codifying canon law was in progress, and upon its completion the Pope paid public tribute to Gasparri, making him upon the same occasion Camerlengo of the Church...
...Prior to the world war, practically no important European nation was on friendly terms with the Holy See and very few states anywhere were represented at the papal court...
...That is why Arab protests were sent, during 1929, to the Vatican...
...In political temper Cardinal Gasparri has closely resembled Aristide Briand...
...Its primary concern, however, has been with the East...
...Here is a state which has long been the very home of Lutheranism, which less than fifty years ago was waging a Kultur-kampf upon the Catholic Church, which has now amicably ruled what its attitude toward this Church is going to be...
...That was on February 7, 1922...
...To date, owing to the opposition of Russia, little progress has been made...
...The two most recent instances are the concordats with Italy and Prussia...
...When Pius XI protested against the stand taken by Mussolini with regard to education, II Temere of Rome published a vitriolic denunciation of the Papal Secretary of State...
...This fact is revealed by such things as his approval of the project to Americanize the Vatican Library and to entrust the cataloguing of the Museo Cristiano, as the treasury of early Christian works of art is termed, to a group of scholars from Princeton University...
...The second principle has undoubtedly been confidence that the Roman question could be solved...
...Nevertheless life is not wholly a matter of roses...
...During September, 1921, Benedict XV addressed to it a letter regarding the Russian famine, which was courteously acted upon...
...Every vestige of obsolete or conflicting legislation has been removed...
Vol. 11 • January 1930 • No. 11
