To whatever lengths the Vatican may go in trying to harmonize its spirit with modern society, and however much freedom it may give to American Catholicism, it is nevertheless certain that it will not alter its fundamental aim by an inch. It will not modify its basic hostility towards the real democratic freedom of society so radically alien to its own doctrines. The indulgence shown towards American Catholicism is merely a tactical maneuver, spreading over a whole continent and embracing decades, if not centuries, to enable the Catholic Church the better to conquer the land.

It should be borne in mind that, notwithstanding its progress and the influence it has already achieved, the Catholic Church in the United States of America, although a powerful minority, is still a minority when confronted by the compact opposition of all the other religious denominations and their cultural, social, and political derivatives. The Catholic Church, therefore, must be careful not to show its real nature too soon or too openly, lest it should alarm the opposition.

Yet in spite of the main principle guiding the Vatican, American Catholicism has already dared to show its true character and aims with regard to both the domestic social and political life of the United States of America and American foreign policy. In fact it has already attempted to do there what it has done for centuries in the Old World namely, to shape society according to its social principles and direct or make use of the political power of a great secular nation to further the religious interests of the Catholic Church abroad. This in spite of the fact that its maneuvers have been carried out in a still overwhelmingly Protestant country.

We have already seen what the global policy of the Vatican is with regard to society in general, and how the Vatican has meddled with the social and political life of nations to shape them according to its doctrines. Our examination of European politics should have made this amply clear. The aims of the Vatican in America are the same as its aims in Europe, the only difference being in the tactics it adopts to reach them.

The fundamental characteristics of the Church's principles with regard to modern society are that they sponsor Authoritarianism and are diametrically opposed to the principles of social and political democracy. The whole policy of the Vatican since the beginning

of the twentieth century has been directed, through its own efforts, but above all in alliance with non-spiritual movements, to hamper the, way of nations. Hence its direct and indirect interference in the political life of Europe and its support of dictatorships.

In America, before the outbreak of the Second World War, the Catholic Church, having the same aims as in Europe, thought itself strong enough to raise its head a little and hesitantly show what it really wanted.

The ultimate aims of the Catholic Church in America are very clearly set out in an official book, stamped with the entire approval of the Pope, studied as a text in Catholic universities, and written by the head of the Social Action Department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference. (The State and the Church, by Mgr. J. .4. Ryan, and M. F. X. Millar, republished 1940 as Catholic Principles of, Politics.) It explicitly states that as there exists only one true religion, Catholicism, the Catholic Church must establish itself as the State Church in the United States of America. This in accordance with the fundamental doctrine of the Popes "that the State must not only have care for religion, but must recognize the true religion". (Leo XIII). In short, Catholicism must be made to prevail and eventually eliminate all other religions. This has as its authority the encyclical written by Pope Leo XIII, called Catholicity in the United' States, in which the American separation of Church and State is condemned.

What, then, should happen to American principles of liberty of conscience, of the individual, of religion, of opinion, and all those other aspects of freedom that are now an integral part of American life? And to take a particular sphere of society, the religious, what would happen if Catholicism assumed power?

Since all religions, with the exception of Catholicism, are false, they cannot be allowed to pervert those who are in the fold of the Catholic Church. Hence all other religious denominations in the United States of America "might" be allowed to profess their faith, and to worship only if such worship is "carried on within the family circle or in such inconspicuous manner as to be an occasion neither for scandal nor of perversion to the Faithful. . . ."

Thus a Catholic United States of America would limit, and eventually even forbid, the practice of religious freedom, which automatically takes the Church into the cultural, social, and finally political,

fields. This is based on the Catholic doctrine that "since no rational end is promoted by the dissemination of false doctrine, there exists no right to indulge in this practice." Why? Simply because the Pope states, and the leader of the American Catholics declares, that "error has not the same rights as truth."

As the reader will have inferred, the Catholic Church would like simply to shape the free United States of America on the same model as the Catholic States of Franco's Spain, Petain's France, Mgr. Tiso's Czechoslovakia not to mention Mussolini's Italy when he was not disputing with the Vatican on religious questions.

The Catholic Church is not only implanting such ideas into the minds of the select few. Its spiritual "Shock Troops," namely the Jesuits, had begun before the war openly to attack the democratic institutions of the United States of America. Suffice it to quote two typical utterances:

How we Catholics have loathed and despised this ... civilization which is now called democracy.... To-day, American Catholics are being asked to shed their blood for that particular kind of secularist civilization which they have heroically repudiated for four centuries (America, May 17, 1941).

And, as if that were not enough, the same publication dared to foretell social revolution within the United States of America, as follows:

The Christian (that is, Catholic) revolution will begin when we decide to cut loose from the existing social order, rather than be buried with it (idem).

Such plans, although carried out in Europe, would have seemed fantastic to an American; yet they were being carefully prepared by the Catholic Church within the United States of America itself before the thunderbolt of Pearl Harbor.

The Vatican being a master in the art of chicanery, naturally did not officially sponsor these plans. It continued to woo democracy and all else that is dear to the American masses, while at the same time preparing a tiny minority of its Faithful, led by a priest, Father Coughlin. In view of what Father Coughlin preached, wrote, and broadcast, it should be remembered that he had the tacit approval of the American Hierarchy, for "any priest who writes articles in daily

papers or periodicals without the permission of his own bishop contravenes Canon 1386 of the Code of Canon Law."

Father Coughlin had thousands of readers of his paper Social Justice, and millions of listeners to his broadcasts. What did he preach? He simply preached the kind of Authoritarianism which was then so successful in Catholic Europe, combined with a mixture of Fascism and Nazism harmonized to a certain extent to suit American society and temperament.

But Father Coughlin, besides preaching, also acted. His tactics, were not those employed by the European sponsors of Authoritarianism, Catholic or otherwise, for he bore in mind that the country in question was the United States of America. Yet they did remind one of similar and successful moves in Europe.

Father Coughlin, in fact, tried to use non-Catholic elements which nevertheless had in common with Catholicism and with him the same hatred of certain things and the same goals in social and political matters. By skillful maneuvering he managed to secure a majority control, 80 per cent, of "America First," an organization formed mainly by super-nationalist elements and business magnates.

Father Coughlin and the leaders of this movement had already made plans to transform "America First" by amalgamation of members with the millions of his radio followers, into a mighty political party. In imitation of European Fascism they went so far at this early stage as to organize a kind of private army which was screened behind the formation of the "Christian Front.” It was to have been the herald of Coughlin's "Christian Revolution."

Sports clubs were set up in many parts of the United States of America. The peculiarity of these clubs was their resemblance to quasi-military movements and the military drilling of their members. The nature of the movement made the American authorities suspicious; Father Coughlin's paper, Social Justice, was banned as "seditious," while many sporting clubs of the "Christian Front" were raided (e.g., Brooklyn Sporting Club of the Christian Front, February 13, 1940).

On more than one occasion Father Coughlin stated that he would seek power, even by violent means; as, for instance, when he declared: "Rest assured we will fight you, Franco's way" (Social Justice, quoted by J. Carlson). Furthermore, he even dared to

predict, at the outbreak of the Second World War, that he would be in power within the next decade:

We predict that ... the National Socialists of America, organized under that or some other name, eventually will take control of the Government on this Continent.... We predict, lastly, the end of Democracy in America.... (Father Coughlin, in Social Justice, September 1, 1939).

Could there be a more outspoken hint of what Father Couglin and his non-Catholic associates would do if they had the opportunity to develop their plan? And what would that mean if the situation should turn in their favor? We have seen how Fascism began and developed in Europe, and this gives us our answer: the result would be simply an American version of European Fascism.

Naturally, the Catholic Church in the United States of America could not support this campaign too openly. It was in its interest even to disown Father Couglin at times, when it did not want to endanger its penetration in American Society through its schools, charitable institutions, the Press, and so on. And yet there is no doubt that the Catholic Church watched Father Couglin's work with great sympathy, and that secretly it supported him and even blessed him. A few typical instances will suffice to prove this.

In 1936 Bishop Gallagher, Coughlin's superior, on his return from a visit to the Vatican, made so that he could discuss, with the Pope, Coughlin's activities, declared: "Father Coughlin is an outstanding priest, and his voice . . . is the voice of God. . . ."

In 1941 a Franciscan compared Father Coughlin to a "Second Christ" (New York, July 29, 1941), and in the following year Catholic prelates asked openly for Coughlin's return, so that he might organize his revolution: "The days are coming when this country will need a Coughlin and need him badly. We must get strong and keep organized for that day" (Father Edward Brophy, a "Christian Front" leader, June 1942).

All this while, in the background, leaders of the American Hierarchy itself were often sympathizers with Fascism. Such, for instance, were Cardinal Hayes of New York, decorated four times by Mussolini, and Cardinal O'Connell, who called Mussolini "that genius given to Italy by God."

By 1941 "America First" and Father Coughlin had about 15,000,000 followers and sympathizers.

Pearl Harbor put an abrupt end to all this. But the first moves, which were kept quiet until the war storm passed, and until new circumstances favored them, were already clear when the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki struck the knock-out blow at Japan.

The portents of textbooks in the Catholic universities, of American cardinals being decorated by Mussolini, of Father Coughlin and his "Christian Front," may, perhaps, seem small when compared with the immense activities carried out by the Catholic Church in the United States of America; for instance, through its N.C.W.C. Nevertheless, they are very significant and demonstrate that, should Catholicism continue its growth in the years to come, it will be a powerful influence, ready to steer the destiny of the United States of America towards a path in all probability alien to the tradition and spirit of the American people.

Meanwhile the Catholic Church in the United States of America is waiting for the time to come when it may emerge more openly with its real aims. It has been carrying on with more subtle tactics its policy of employing its already remarkable influence in that country in order to achieve goals in the internal and, above all, in the external fields. To put it more bluntly, it is using the power of the United States of America to further its policy in various parts of the world.

This might sound rather startling, but in reality it is not so. Without searching for doubtful instances, let us remember two remarkable occurrences, the first of which took place in the decade immediately following the First World War, when revolution broke out in Mexico. It happened that the external agencies which found themselves endangered by the new Government were the Catholic Church and the great American oil concerns. Both wielded great influence in the internal affairs of Mexico through their economic power, controlled in the one case from Rome and in the other from the United States of America.

The programme of the new Mexican Government was to limit the influence of the Church by undermining it in the economic, 'social, cultural, and political fields, and to expropriate the oil concern owned and controlled by American firms. It therefore found itself confronted by two powerful enemies, which, although so alien the one to the other, became allies.

The Catholic Church, besides starting an armed revolution and inciting Mexican Catholics to assassinate the Mexican President, aroused the 20,000,000 Catholics in the United States of America against their neighbors, and the American Hierarchy at the same time openly asked for American intervention in Mexico. This request, of course, was backed by the powerful oil concern, and it so nearly succeeded that the United States of America went so far as to mobilize a considerable part of its Air Force on the border of Mexico (see following chapter).

The second and more recent case occurred during the Spanish Civil War. We have already seen the part played by the Vatican in that tragedy. When the war first broke out, in July 1936, the main concern of the Vatican was to procure as much help for the Catholic rebels as possible and to deprive the Republicans of such help. That Hitler and Mussolini sent soldiers and guns to Franco, that France closed her frontier, that Tory England helped the rebels with her hypocritical non-intervention formula, was not enough to satisfy the Vatican.

The help sent to the Republicans by Russia was ridiculously inadequate and was made even less effective by difficulties of communication and by the iron ring of the Western Powers, who were determined that the Republicans should not be helped. The only place still open to the Spanish Government was the United States market.

It became a matter of the utmost importance that this last hope of the Republic should be dashed. As neither Mussolini nor Hitler, for obvious reasons, could ask Washington to close the door, this task was undertaken by the Vatican, which, using the full machinery of the Catholic Church within the United States, started one of the most unscrupulous slander and hatred campaigns on record. This it conducted through its Press, radio, pulpits, and schools; and, by appealing directly and openly to President Roosevelt, it managed to get what it wanted.

At this stage it would not be amiss to glance at the close relation. ship that existed between President Roosevelt and the Vatican, for we have already seen how important this relationship was to become throughout the Second World War.

The Pope and the President had several aims in common, and

each could help the other in his respective field. The Vatican was taking the initial steps to get the United States of America's support in the eventuality of a European war, in the background of which loomed Bolshevik Russia, while Roosevelt at that time wanted to capture the Catholic Vote in the next Presidential election and the Vatican's support of his policy of unification for the American Continent. More remotely he desired the Vatican's support and influence in the political cauldron of Europe, especially in the event of war.

It was against this background that the Vatican began to act in the autumn of 1936 by sending the Pope's Secretary of State, Car. dinal Pacelli, on a visit to the States. Strangely enough, the visit coincided with the election. Cardinal Pacelli arrived in New York on October 9, 1936, and, after spending a couple of weeks in the East, he made a whirlwind trip to the Middle and Far West, visiting Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, etc. He was back in New York on November 1. After Roosevelt was re-elected, on November 6, he had lunch with him at Hyde Park.

What the visit of the Papal Secretary meant to the American Hierarchy, with its tremendous machinery of newspapers and the N.C.W.C., at election time, is obvious. This, it should be noticed by way of contrast, while Father Coughlin was advising Americans that if they could not unseat Roosevelt with the ballot they should oust him with bullets.

Pacelli and Roosevelt, after the election, discussed the main points: the help that the United States of America should give indirectly to the Vatican to crush the Spanish Republic, under the formula of neutrality, and the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Washington. Secret negotiations were begun between Pius XI and Roosevelt, and continued until 1939, without any concrete result. Then, on June 16, 1939, the Rome Correspondent of the New York Times sent a dispatch from the Vatican, declaring that "steps to bring relations between the Holy See and the United States on a normal diplomatic footing are expected to be taken soon by Pope Pius XII [who, meanwhile, had succeeded Pius XI]."

On July 29, 1939, Cardinal Enrico Gasparri arrived in New York and spent three days with Archbishop Spellman, his mission being to prepare "the juridical status for the possible opening of diplomatic

relations between the State Department and the Holy See" (New York Times, July 29, 1939).

The great difficulty which prevented the establishment of regular diplomatic relations between the Vatican and the White House was that Roosevelt could not send a regular ambassador to the Vatican, while the Vatican could not send a nuncio to Washington, without submitting the plan to Congress. However, Roosevelt found a more compromising man in Plus XII, and a way was soon found by which Congress could be overstepped and the United States could have its ambassador. In December 1939 the United States, which officially had ignored the Vatican since 1867, established diplomatic connections with it by appointing Mr. Myron Taylor the first personal ambassador of President Roosevelt to the Pope. This was accomplished without any serious stir in Protestant United States, and the move was favored by the belief that, thanks to the parallel efforts of the Pope and the President, Italy had been kept out of the war.

Mr. Taylor was a millionaire, a high Episcopalian, an intimate friend of both Roosevelt and Pius XII, and an admirer of Fascism. He was thus accepted by Protestants, Catholics, the White House, the Vatican, and Mussolini. For it had not been forgotten that on November 5, 1936, Taylor had declared that "the whole world has been forced to admire the successes of Premier Mussolini in disciplining the nation," and had expressed his approval of the occupation of Ethiopia: "To-day a new Italian Empire faces the future and assumes its responsibilities as guardian and administrator of a backward people of 10,000,000 souls" (New York Times, November 6, 1936).

That was the beginning of the diplomatic political relations of the Vatican and Washington, which lasted until the death of President Roosevelt (April 1945) and practically until the end of the Second World War.

We saw this relationship at work when dealing with Italy, Germany, and Russia, through the frequent scurrying across the Atlantic of Mr. Sumner Welles, Mr. Taylor, Mgr. Spellman, Mr. Titman, and Mr. Flynn, all of whom, as occasion demanded, acted as "unofficial" ambassadors to the Holy See.

The affinity of common interests in numerous domestic and foreign spheres fostered this close relationship. The role the Vatican could play during hostilities as an intermediary between all the belligerents,

and the prestige it could exercise in many countries, constituted the strength of Catholicism, on the one hand; while, on the other hand, economic, financial, and political advantages were the assets of the United States. These forces, which impelled the two Powers to follow parallel policies, productive to both partners and enhancing the already great influence of Rome, both within and without the United States, made the Catholic-American co-operation so intimate that, as an ex-Ambassador to the Vatican put it, "few people in Europe were aware of the union which was functioning on a spiritual level between the two forces which were represented in the United States and the Holy See and which . . . were co-ordinated in each instance that justified joint action." (Mr. Frangois Charles Roux, former French Ambassador to the Holy See. Revue de Paris, September 1946.)

With the coming of a new President and the cessation of hostilities, this relationship was practically unaltered. The personal representative of the President to the Vatican, explained in 1939 "as a temporary measure made necessary by war," with the dawn of peace remained there, on the ground that besides being of importance during hostilities, he "would be equally useful in the future." He would, therefore, continue indefinitely in his mission, which would end, "not this year, probably not next year, but at some time or other; in fact, only when peace reigns all over the whole world." (President Truman to the Protestant Ministers who asked him to withdraw his special envoy to the Vatican, June 1946.)

After this declaration had created a deep sense of uneasiness throughout the country, and influential sections had described Mr. Taylor's appointment as "preferential treatment of one Church over another," had called for a Congressional investigation into "the financing, authorization and responsibilities" of Mr. Taylor's mission, and had expressed resentment of the fact that the President, by maintaining the semi-official relationship with the Vatican, violated "our cherished American doctrine separating Church from State," a White House statement announced that Mr. Taylor would be returning to Rome on a visit not exceeding thirty days, "to resume discussions on matters of importance with the Pope" (28th November, 1946).

In the following year, Pope and President exchanged letters overtly acknowledging an unofficial alliance. the like of which not

even the most sanguine imagination would have dared to visualize only a short decade before.

Whereas Truman in a missive which his personal envoy presented to Pius XII in August 1947 pledged the resources of the United States to help the Pope and "all the forces striving for a moral world" to restore order and to secure an enduring peace "which can be built only upon Christian principles," the Head of the Catholic Church assured the President that the United States of America would receive "wholehearted co-operation from God's Church," which championed "the individual against despotic rule ... laboring man against oppression ... religion against persecution," adding that as "social injustices . . . are a very useful and effective weapon in the hands of those who are bent on destroying all the good that civilization has brought to man . . . it is for all sincere lovers of the great human family to unite in wresting those weapons from their hands." (Letter sent by Pope Pius XII to President Truman, August 1947.)

A few days later the Pope, speaking from a golden throne in the middle of St. Peter's Square, warned 100,000 members of the Catholic Action League (one of the Vatican's main weapons in the struggle to resist the growth of Communism in Italy) against "those who are bent on destroying civilization." Before the menace of the Communists, affirmed the Pope, heavy duties pressed upon every Catholic, indeed upon every man, duties which called for conscientious fulfillment often entailing acts of true heroism. The time for reflection was past, and the time for action had come. (See London "Times," September 7,1947.)

Although during the Second World War she had not fully realized it, the United States of America now discovered that the Vatican, besides being the "world's best listening pose' from which more could be learned about the currents and cross currents of international affairs than from any State Department in the world, was also a most powerful ally in the "cold war" which East and West, supposedly at peace, were waging against one another.

It was a time when responsible United States leaders were talking of the situation as extremely grave, when hints of a lightning preventive atomic war against Soviet Russia seemed to be more than mere rumors.

At the Vatican ominous plans had been carefully laid down. Primates

in the various countries behind the Iron Curtain were warned to prepare for the establishment of Catholic or Right-wing Governments on the approaching downfall of the Communist regimes as one of them, Cardinal Mindszenty, openly declared during his trial two years later. During that trial in Budapest, Cardinal Mindszenty, Primate of Hungary, admitted that he had asked for American and British intervention "to get rid of an unbearable cruelty, terror and oppression," but bad always prayed against the coming of a third World War. Nonetheless he agreed that he had calculated "that such a war might come." (London "Times," 5.2.1949.)

The atomic blitzkrieg did not take place. The "cold war" was its sinister substitute. But the probability that a shooting war might burst upon the world in the near future made the mission of the Presidential personal envoy to the Vatican more necessary and impellent than ever before.

From then onwards relations between the United States of America and the Vatican, owing to the increasing identification of mutual interests in certain areas of the world e.g. Eastern Europe and the necessity of supporting or combating certain political movements either with dollar loans or with encyclicals, became so close that they were soon transformed into a real and proper tacit alliance, the like of which was without precedent in the annals of American history.

This strange political bedfellowship was made possible, in addition to the above reasons, by the realization on the part of both partners that neither alone could hope successfully to crush the Red Dragon. For the one, while providing moral weapons, could not supply atomic bombs; and the other, while bursting with immense war potential, was unable to distill the spiritual stamina morally to justify an anti-Bolshevist crusade that would plunge mankind into a third bloodbath.

If Communism, which in numerous parts of the world had crystallized into political systems whilst in others it was still in a fluid state, was to be successfully combated, it had to be fought simultaneously on two well defined fronts: the material and the spiritual; hence the necessity of employing moral as well as physical weapons.

As the United States of America, notwithstanding her immense financial and industrial resources, could not seriously contemplate,

the wiping out of the Communist ideology should she succeed in crushing Soviet Russia, so neither could the Vatican, with its 400 million Catholics, hope to combat an armed conglomeration of dictatorships holding in their grip one sixth of the Earth and a third of Europe. It was inevitable, therefore, that the United States of America, which could oppose them with the weight of steel and of standing armies, and the Vatican, having at its disposal a worldwide moral boycott strong enough to stir millions with deep conviction, should become necessary to one another.

It followed, therefore, that as in 1939 previous to the outbreak of the Second World War Roosevelt had deemed it useful to maintain a personal envoy at the Vatican, in 1949, Truman could do no less than his predecessor. The United States of America, in a tacit acknowledgment that democratic principles were not sufficient to give the necessary fire to its crusade, had turned to the Vatican for a whipping up of organized antagonism on the moral side.

Within a decade the American Catholic honeymoon had produced what the Church had so fervently waited for, particularly since the disappearance of Nazism: the shining sword of an American St. George making ready to slay the Red Dragon. The United States of America had become the arsenal of the Catholic Church.

Paradoxically enough, one of the factors most responsible for the gathering momentum of the Catholic Church in the United States was the spread of Communism which during the last twenty years has done more to strengthen Catholicism in the United States of America than practically anything else since the great Catholic immigrations of the last century.

The bogey of Communism, which during the last thirty years had served so well in world politics, has proved to be no less useful to the Vatican's efforts to break down the anti-Catholic front inside the United States of America.

Most of the Protestant Churches, which even in comparatively normal times, owing to their disunity, unco-ordinated efforts and lack of vision, are at a chronic disadvantage when dealing with the Catholic Church, with the resurgence of the "Red menace" at home and abroad have been mesmerised by the anti-Bolshevist role which the Vatican has been playing so prominently in world politics as a partner of the United States of America. This to such an extent that to-day one sees Protestant leaders and Protestant papers approve

of the political activities of the Catholic Church; indeed, support the Vatican both in the domestic and foreign politics, in the mistaken notion that the Vatican's fight is their fight, that the Catholic Church is the foremost champion of Christianity against an anti-Christian ideology, seemingly unaware that Catholicism is making formidable breaches within their own ranks and is quietly attempting to step into their place.

What twenty years ago any Protestant would have regarded an utter impossibility, now is looked upon with indifference and even approval by influential sections of American Protestantism.

It is true that when compared to the nationwide Protestant dis. approval this is of little account, yet it is of ominous portent that the Catholic Church has finally achieved what it has so persistently attempted for decades: to split the anti-Catholic front of American Protestantism, to divide its opponents; indeed, to rally to its side influential sections and individuals of the opposite field, to be welcomed as an ally in the very midst of Protestantism, until recently the most powerful obstacle to its incursion in the life of the United States of America.

Constantinople was not sacked because the Turks had battered her mighty walls. It fell because of a small breach in the rear which the Byzantines had hardly noticed, engrossed as they were in repelling the massive attack of the 200,000 troops of Mohamet II from whom they expected their ruin to come.

The Catholic Church's achievements do not end here. Besides having aligned itself with Protestant United States in world politics and having succeeded in lulling a considerable part of the opposition, it is quickening its pace to Americanize itself the better to Catholicize America.

Its Hierarchy has been expanded, allowed more freedom than any Hierarchy outside the United States of America. New American Cardinals have been created (1946); American Bishops have multiplied, seminaries have increased, American saints are being raised to the Altar (Mother Cabrini, 1946) ; or their causes, some of which were introduced forty years ago, now are suddenly speeded up to give the American masses their American born saints. (The Pope himself in July 1947 promoted the canonization cause of Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, American born mother of five and, alter the death of her husband, founder and first superior in the United

States of the Sisters of Charity. If the cause succeeds, Mother Seton will become the first saint to be born in America, as Frances Cabrini, was born in Italy and became a naturalized American.) Members of the American Hierarchy are posted with unparalleled frequency to positions of eminence and responsibility, not only in America but also abroad. (Election in Paris of Fr. William Slattery of Baltimore, as Superior General of the Vincentians, breaks a tradition of four centuries. The post has always been held by a Frenchman, July 1947. Fr. John Mix, born in Chicago, elected Superior General of the Congregation of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, July 1947. Mother Mary Vera of Cleveland, Ohio, elected Superior General of the Sisters of Notre Dame, January 1947.) Indeed, American Cardinals are confidants and personal friends of the Pope and their weight in the central administration of the Vatican is increasing with the passing of time. Americans are taking up the reins of the Catholic Church in America, abroad and in Rome, the better, when the time is ripe, to take over a Catholic America.

The Vatican, having set out to conquer, although always true to a carefully studied grand strategy, is a master of tactics. The interplay of social and political currents and countercurrents everywhere consequently is indefatigably used to carry out in quickened tempo its penetration in the affairs of the United States of America and of the rest of the world.

Its campaign for the ultimate conquest of the United States of America is conducted simultaneously along four main lines:

(A) Alliance with the United States of America in the struggle against world Communism.

(B) The lulling of Protestant opposition within the United States of America by use of the Communist bogey. The assumption of the role of the first and foremost Christian Knight against the Red Dragon. The attempt to obtain the support of certain sections of the non-Catholic Churches.

(C) Intensification of the process of Americanizing Catholicism inside and outside America.

(D) Unobtrusive efforts to batter certain clauses in the political structure of the United States of America, the modification of some of which would ultimately give the Catholic Church a privileged status vis-a-vis other Churches.

With reference to the last, two indicators more than anything else show where the Catholic Church is concentrating its attack: Protestantism's softening to the idea of a permanent unofficial representative to the Vatican; and the Catholic, Church's attempt to assail the Constitution of the United States of America. Although it is perilous to assume the mantle of a prophet, yet it is not improbable that the "temporary measures" initiated by Roosevelt may grow into a "permanent feature" of the State Department.

On the day the United States of America has an Ambassador to the Vatican, the Vatican will be entitled to have a representative in Washington who will officially address the President on behalf not only of Vatican City, an independent miniature State, but of the Roman Catholic citizens of the United States, and furthermore on behalf of the 400 million Roman Catholics all over the world. It would be as if Moscow's Ambassador accredited to Washington were entitled legally to represent, besides the Government of Soviet Russia, American Communists and indeed all Communists abroad.

What would this mean? That the Constitution of the United States of America would crumble to the ground and that the separation of the State from the Church would be gone forever. (It is noteworthy that a Pope's broadcast dealing with false and true democracy has been incorporated in the Congressional Record, 1946. Senator James Murray of Montana, on proposing its insertion, remarked: "Those who have criticized this message . . . should be sure that in criticizing its contents they do not also criticize some of the fundamental tenets of American Democracy.")

This is not mere speculation. The Catholic Church has already taken the first cautious yet bold steps along this new, dangerous road. In the autumn of 1948, the Roman Catholic Hierarchy of America issued a long statement calmly making public their determination to amend one of the most fundamental concepts of American Government, to work "peacefully, patiently and perseveringly" for the revision of what it considers the Supreme Court's "ominously extensive interpretation" of the First Amendment. Their chief point at issue was unmistakably propounded: Was or was not the First Amendment, prohibiting Congress from making laws "respecting an establishment of religion," intended to reach and to maintain a separation of Church and State? In their attempts at interpreting what was in the minds of the framers of the Constitution,

the Catholic Hierarchy wrote off as a "misleading metaphor" Jefferson's sentence regarding "the wall of separation between Church and State," going even further by suggesting that the phrase can be clarified by the words of the Amendment itself.

To reach the end of a thousand-miles-long journey, as the Chinese proverb says, one begins with a first small step.

The Catholic Church in the United States has traveled far since the days in the 18th Century when its 30,000 members were considered almost social outcasts. At its present pace, increase, and growing weight, not many years will go by before no single department of American life will not be directly or indirectly influenced by the Catholic Church. Catholicism in the United States, being on the increase in geometrical proportion, is geometrically seeping through the economic, social, moral, educational and political life of the country.

[Three in every 16 Americans is a Catholic (1949). About 43 Negroes became Catholics in the United States every day during 1946. Catholics represent about one-fourth of the entire Indian population of the United States. America's most Catholic cities are: Boston, leading with 75.3 per cent Catholic population, New Orleans 66 per cent, Providence 56.7, Syracuse 53.5, Jersey City 53.2, Buffalo 52, Detroit 47.2, Chicago 40.8, Philadelphia 29.5, and New York only 22.6 per cent.]

If the Catholic Church can exercise such a remarkable influence now, when, although a formidable unit, it is still a minority, what will be its power a few decades hence?

The increase of the United States of America's stature in world politics will increase the stature of American Catholicism. An increased American Catholicism will mean growing Catholic pressure on the internal structure of American society.

How much of such pressure will the fast-disintegrating Protestant Churches stand? For how long would the Constitution be left unaltered and the separation of Church and State be allowed to remain one of the fundamental pillars of the United States?

If, parallel to this, American Catholic pressure should continue to grow also within the secretive walls of the Vatican itself, so that out of the coming Conclaves there should emerge the first of the American Popes, how soon would the Catholic Church conquer America?

[As far back as 1945 there were rumors that Mgr. Spellman might be Papal Secretary of State (Vatican Radio, 16.6.1945). Since the nomination of more American Cardinals, certain Vatican circles do not "exclude" the possibility of an "American Pope.")

We live in a century where many seemingly impossible speculations have already become pulsating realities. In the past the Catholic Church has performed miracles. Will it still be able to perform one in this our twentieth century, and transform the United States into a Catholic America?

Chapter 19