Unusual Affliction

To Roman-born patrician Eugenio Pacelli, Pius XII, bombing Rome differs from bombing any other city. The Holy Father has often lifted his voice against warfare, more than once deplored destruction from the air. But never before has the full power of papal rhetoric been turned on a specific bombing. Last week, while the bombs fell four miles and more away, the Pope prayed in his private chapel. Later he visited San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, found it "in grandissimi parte" destroyed, though the altar and the tomb of Pius IX survived. Drawing upon his rich reservoir of sonorous prose, he wrote the Vicar General of Rome:

". . . We have thought with all our heart . . . that the horror and destruction of bombing should be spared our dear Rome ... the holy city of Catholicism. . . . We thought ourselves justified in hoping [for] . . . the consolation, among so many bitter experiences, of finding a reception by the contending parties of our intercession in favor of Rome. Alas, this so reasonable hope has been disappointed. . . . Our soul is touched with unusual affliction. . . ."

The letter said nothing of the military objectives successfully bombed, mentioned only San Lorenzo. Then the Holy Father suspended audiences for several days, gave permission for the terror-stricken to spend the night in the colonnades of St. Peter's.

London's Catholic Universe hoped that Catholics were not going to "play the Axis game by echoing the violent and hypocritical protests of the Italian Fascist radio." Three days after the bombing, the Vatican's own radio advised listeners to accept only Vatican reports of Vatican actions. But by this time the Catholic world was in an uproar.

Hot Words and Cool. Said 83-year-old William Cardinal O'Connell, Archbishop of Boston: "The whole Christian world is saddened and grieved at the terrible news of the bombardment of Rome. . . . Whether or not it was thought to be a military necessity we must leave to the judgment and conscience of those responsible."

Bishop Joseph P. Hurley of St. Augustine cried out against a "tragically mistaken decision," predicted that "much of our national unity, much of the respect we enjoy abroad now lie, with San Lorenzo, in ruins."

Other Churchmen warned of the "moral risk," spoke of the "sense of surprise and regret." The Evangelist, Albany's diocesan weekly, said: "The bombing . . . smells to heaven as an act of vandalism."

With these indignant outcries calmer Catholic voices chimed in. Said the archdiocesan weekly for Baltimore and Washington: "There has been some hypocrisy ... in the protests." Commonweal, edited by Catholic laymen, said: "The announcements [that special precautions were taken in the bombing of Rome] make it look as if Catholics thought there must be one justice for Rome and another for all other cities. ... To precisely the extent his faith is strong and informed [the Catholic] will make no distinction between the bombing of Rome and that of a miserable Calabrian village, an industrial city of the Ruhr and an English town. ... He will not say that if the church is a basement church in a modern suburb it is all right . . . but that if it is a cathedral church it is a sacrilege."

Added Francis E. McMahon, Notre Dame professor of philosophy and head of the Catholic Association for International Peace: "As the Crusaders once stormed Jerusalem to rescue the Holy Land from the infidel, so American flyers bombed Rome to drive out the Fascists."

The Bombed and the Unbombed. Elsewhere the comment varied too. In much-bombed Malta, under chalked up exhortations to "Bomb Rome," joyful Maltese scrawled: "Thanks." In bomb-ridden Chungking the Catholic Social Welfare exhorted Italians to "wake up and live." In unbombed Dublin Eamon de Valera's Irish Press thought the bombs would "sadden many." London's official attitude was: "regretful, yes; apologetic, no." Unofficial London: "It's about time." Madrid and Lisbon were noncommittal, Rio de Janeiro generally approved; Buenos Aires frowned.

At week's end, Vatican Radio again went on the air. "The Holy Father is very willing to believe that the bombs were not intentionally dropped on the basilica. . . . His words were not intended to incite to anger and hatred, but ... it must be emphasized that Rome is indeed something without equal. ... It would have been possible to make Rome an open city. . . . The Holy Father is also not unaware that other towns have suffered terribly . . . that injuring of the mystical body of Christ weighs heavier than the destruction of stone houses of God."

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