OCR
XA N2 for June THE VATICAN ANGLE. One of the places where today the situation is considered with greatest earmestness is the Vatican. Well informed of World affairs and trends, center of more activities than meets the eye, the Vatican has a more accurate sensitivity for the shifting of situations than any other point on the globe. 14% reacts therefore like an extremely sensitive seismograph even to the far=distant rumblings of things to comes An error common to all those people who do not know the workings of the Vatican intimately is to consider it as a monolithic organization, in which a full unity of the spirit rulese¢ While this is true for the purely dogmatic and religious aspects of the Vatican, it is far from true for its more or less political services like e.g. the Secretariat of State. Here the most divergent political views clash and fight. The two leaders of the oor fardini and Montini are known to hold opposite viewSe ardini is a heavy peasant of conservative views ; Montini, the slick, urbane diplomat has rather leftist sympathies, And this divergence of views is especially grave at the present time, when the Pope is nc longer able to impose his unifying viewe Because Pius XII is beginning to sjow his age. Though his capacity of work, his knowledge of public affairs is still impressive to the visitor, he tires very rapidlye It is a fact, that while he is still his old self in the morning, he gets so tired in the afternoon that he avoids decisions, forgets things and even falls asleep during important conferences. The Pope thus is forced to reduce his work and since, for obvious reasons, purely religious and missionary questions have the paramount importance in his thought, the political angles are somewhat neglected* This gives ample liberty to the two schools of thought to fight it out. the school of thought of Tardini is the 100% enti-russian group, the pergons of the American alliance and of the full and strong fight. The other school of thought considers America with scepticism, questions its motives and its ethical standards, opposes the views that the Church should ally iyself with the United States and demands the attempt of new discussions