From the Continent

The Children of Light, as we all know, are less clever than the Children of Darkness. This Biblical truth pertains primarily to Christians, to the Catholic Church in particular— and above all to the Vatican. This should not cause the intelligent Catholic to despair, though it may at times occasion anguish or indignation. He will do well to recall Boccaccio’s story of the Jew who told a Gentile friend that he intended to become a Catholic. “Since this is a momentous step,” he added, “I want to take it in the heart of Christendom, in Rome.” When, some time later, he returned from a commercial errand to the Eternal City he described to his friend the decadence, the corruption, the inefficiency and the chaotic amateurism at the Papal Court. “Remember,” his Christian friend said sadly, “that you once wanted to be baptized in Rome? I was afraid that your experiences there would change your mind.” “But by no means! I was indeed baptized there. A Church which is so inefficient and corrupt and yet has managed to exist for 13 centuries must be of divine origin.”

The story is a consolation, but a meager one. Just now, stern criticism is expressed in Catholic and conservative circles against the Vatican’s policy in Eastern Europe (see “The Pope’s Ostpolitik,” NR, March 30)—and not only there. Careful observers had discovered symptoms of a leftward tendency in socio-economic matters in several of the Encyclicals of the past 15 years, but now there is growing evidence of Vatican efforts to establish a modus vivendi, or even more than that, with the Communist-dominated East. Against this there have been outcries from German Catholics, and barely muted protests from the other side of the Iron Curtain. Few suggest that the Church has changed its basic attitude toward Communism, but it is nonetheless clear that the Vatican is steering a course which creates confusion and uncertainty and, in the end, will probably not attain the desired goals.

EK

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Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

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Religious Persecution

The Children of Light, as we all know, are less clever than the Children of Darkness. This Biblical truth pertains primarily to Christians, to the Catholic Church in particular— and above all to the Vatican. This should not cause the intelligent Catholic to despair, though it may at times occasion anguish or indignation. He will do well to recall Boccaccio’s story of the Jew who told a Gentile friend that he intended to become a Catholic. “Since this is a momentous step,” he added, “I want to take it in the heart of Christendom, in Rome.” When, some time later, he returned from a commercial errand to the Eternal City he described to his friend the decadence, the corruption, the inefficiency and the chaotic amateurism at the Papal Court. “Remember,” his Christian friend said sadly, “that you once wanted to be baptized in Rome? I was afraid that your experiences there would change your mind.” “But by no means! I was indeed baptized there. A Church which is so inefficient and corrupt and yet has managed to exist for 13 centuries must be of divine origin.”

The story is a consolation, but a meager one. Just now, stern criticism is expressed in Catholic and conservative circles against the Vatican’s policy in Eastern Europe (see “The Pope’s Ostpolitik,” NR, March 30)—and not only there. Careful observers had discovered symptoms of a leftward tendency in socio-economic matters in several of the Encyclicals of the past 15 years, but now there is growing evidence of Vatican efforts to establish a modus vivendi, or even more than that, with the Communist-dominated East. Against this there have been outcries from German Catholics, and barely muted protests from the other side of the Iron Curtain. Few suggest that the Church has changed its basic attitude toward Communism, but it is nonetheless clear that the Vatican is steering a course which creates confusion and uncertainty and, in the end, will probably not attain the desired goals.