The News Interpreted
7he POPE BECOMES KING---
HE beginning of 1929 sees an event
and an agitation — both of momen-
tous significance — that affect every
religious believer on earth. The one
has received far-reaching publicity
throughout the civilized world; the other,
as yet, is passing almost unnoticed. We
will comment on each separately, and
possibly find some connection between
them.
KiNG Pius
On February 11 a parcel of ground,
105 acres in extent, one sixth of a square
mile, in the city of Rome, Italy, changed
owners — and rulers. But the stir
created in the religious world and in
international relationship by this deal
is far out of proportion to the size of
the land involved. It marked the end
of a sixty-year feud between the govern-
ment of Italy and the Roman Catholic
Church; the definite granting of civil
power to the Church by Italy, and in
principle by all other governments on
earth; the tacit acknowledgment on
the part of secular government that
civil power should never have been taken
away from the Church, and that the
Church has a right to, and needs, the
civil arm to enforce its religious decrees
and practices on all people.
International Newsreel
The contract signed by Mussolini,
Italian premier, and Cardinal Gasparri,
papal secretary of state, provides that
the pope shall henceforth have absolute
civil sway over the ‘City of the Vati-
can,” as it is to be named; and also for
the payment to the Hierarchy by Italy
of about $87,000,000 as a settlement for
the financial loss the Church is estimated
to have sustained by the taking away
of its temporal power in 1870. The
Catholic religion is to be the state
religion of the nation, the canon law
of the Church is to prevail throughout
the country. In matrimony, and such
other vital matters, the secular power
will enforce the decisions of the ecclesi-
astical authority. The contract is fully
settled, except that the signatures of
pope and king are to be affixed in April.
By the press the event is hailed as the
“most brilliant exploit’ of the careers
of both pope and premier. Both
Church and State are elated over it,
for now each has prospects of its fondest
ambitions being fulfilled. Catholics
throughout the world show glee; and
few Protestants see in it any particular
significance, or danger to religious liberty.
The whole matter of church and state
union, with the church power in the
ascendency, is fraught with tremendous
President Coolidge signs the Peace Pact that it is hoped will end war,
while vice-president Dawes and Secretary of State Kellogg look on
PAGE SIXTEEN
significance to professed Christians of
America and the world. Italy is not
alone involved, for the vaunting ambi-
tions of Mussolini run far afield, and
Catholic contact and influence are almost
universal in Christendom. Rome is
everywhere and always the same, and
what is considered good for one country
must be thought good for all. And the
royal road to this goal of forcing men to
be religious — and religious in a certain
way — appears through the League of
Nations and the World Court. Already
the pope is being mentioned for member-
ship in that great federation and tribunal
and now no technical obstacle can be
placed in the way. We see in this the .
probability of the pope's being selected
as the supreme arbiter of the nations,
if the nations cannot reach, as they
have not reached, an agreement for
peace among themselves. Let Rome
once get the upper hand with the
civil powers, and the long-cherished
and openly-avowed intention of the
papacy to make the world Catholic
will achieve success. And where moral
suasion fails, the secular power will be
called upon to force compliance by
police power. ‘Then woe to any re-
ligionist who dares to disagree with the
church and to practice his convictions!
The Roman Church contends for the
necessity of civil jurisdiction, be it ever
so small. The Church, it is said, being
universal and having adherents within
the jurisdictions of all states, its seat
must not be within the geographical
boundaries of any state, in order
that it may not be influenced or inter-
fered with by any one power, or even
suspicioned of any partiality. This has
a ring of plausibility. But how does
the church remove itself from the world
by taking over the very civil power
which characterizes the world in con-
tradistinction to the church? It would
not need civil power if it retained divine
power, its rightful prerogative. The
church and the world are to be separate
as concerns spiritual and temporal
things, not geographically. The Master
made it plain that His followers would
be in the world, yet not of it.
It is noteworthy that the newspaper
headlines reporting this agreement car-
ried such sentiments as ‘‘ The Festering
Wound Healed.”” And, after the signing,
the pope came forth and for the first
time “blessed the world,” as if he could
not have blessed it before. But the
headline writers knew nothing about
THE WATCHMAN MAGAZINE