Priest into President

In rubber-stamp totalitarian fashion, the Parliament of Nazi-dominated Republic of Slovakia last week unanimously elected Premier Jozef Tiso, a Catholic priest, to become President of Slovakia. Dr. Tiso was kicked upstairs to a post of greater dignity, less power, because the Nazis have begun to consider him "untrustworthy." Simultaneously Minister of Interior Bela Tuka was promoted Premier amid rumors that he will soon be replaced by an even more pliant Nazi tool.

In Vatican City the news that a simple priest had become President--an event believed to be without precedent*--was received with anything but rejoicing.

The Slovak stooge President must frequently dance attendance in Berlin upon his master Adolf Hitler who last week gave Dr. Tiso the Grand Cross of the German Eagle and whose Nazi regime the Pope sternly denounced. Moreover, Priest Tiso as President is directly represented in Moscow by his own cousin, Urano Tiso, Slovak Minister to a regime which the Holy See not only refuses to recognize but considers the personification of antichrist. To complicate matters still further, Priest Tiso as an ecclesiastic is responsible to his Bishop, but the Bishop under the Slovak Constitution has to swear allegiance to President Tiso.

*Austria's late Chancellor Seipel was a Monsignor, France's late great Richelieu a Cardinal.

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