Letter from Joseph P. Walshe to Frederick H. Boland (Dublin)¹(Secret)

My dear Secretary,
It is quite a long time since I have reported on the situation here. You will, however, understand that it was a period of very great activity and anxiety and I devoted all my time to helping the Comitato Civico. I felt sure that that was the Minister's desire and it seemed to be imposed upon me by the nature of my position here. You will be glad to hear that I have had the warmest approval from the Holy Father (through Professor Gedda, who is recognised to have been the Deus ex machina of the crisis). I need hardly say that I have made it abundantly clear to the Vatican that the Government, through our Minister, had inspired the collection made by the Archbishops and had given their complete collaboration from the moment they realized the serious character of the situation.

It may therefore be taken for granted that Ireland's prestige has been considerably enhanced by our attitude and by the great generosity shown by our people. Naturally, the Vatican has taken it all as a measure, not merely of our desire to help the Italians in their fight against Communism, but also of our alertness in face of the danger as likely to affect our own country. From Italians of every class ... whether practising Catholics or not I have heard the greatest praise and appreciation for the help given by us. Naturally, I have avoided any possibility of involving either the Government or the Embassy and I don't think there will be any possibility in that regard even in the left newspapers. However, it was so clear that the Irish Government could only take one side in such an issue that they are bound to be attacked, if only incidentally, by a press which is inspired almost exclusively by Moscow. The Minister will agree that such attacks can only serve our best interests because they emphasize the strength of our allegiance to the principles which are the basis of Christian Civilisation. As I said, in reply to the minister's warning about offending parties or individuals, outside the sphere of Vatican influence but still anti-communist, there was no such risk. Apart from the fact that all anti-communists without exception regarded the fight as fundamentally international and, in consequence, regarded foreign aid as the most natural thing in the world, there was no reason on earth why the circles envisaged by the Minister should be au courant either with the Government's collaboration or with my movements.

With regard to all sums subscribed and sent through the Department, telegrams of acknowledgement were sent by Gedda immediately on receipt of the cheque from me. Although he sent several telegrams to The Archbishop of Dublin thanking him for his wonderful work resulting in financial and spiritual help, he has not yet been able to send an exact acknowledgement of the amount received (including the Lire exchange equivalent) because it was only this Friday morning the 23rd April that the Secretariat of State, after endless confusion and hesitations informed me in writing that the monies handed to the Nuncio for the Comitato Civico i.e. £ 49,234.10.0 had been lodged to Gedda's account. The lire exchange at which the transaction was completed was 1830 to the pound sterling and the total amount of lire for this sum now at Gedda's disposal is 90,099,135.

We should not forget the tendency of the Vatican to allow all sums subscribed to go into a common fund from which they are subsequently distributed without indicating the source. This tendency caused the greatest irritation last year during the distribution of the aid to Italy sent by Ireland and America. They assume that we should be satisfied that the money is used according to the will of the Holy Father. There is no doubt that the Vatican would have taken our contribution into account when making disbursements to Gedda, but neither he nor his headquarters would have known the extent of Ireland's contribution, and it is quite possible that the Holy Father would never have known unless Gedda were in a position to tell him. At the end of 1946 the Irish Bishops contributed a large sum to the Holy Father for His charities in Italy and Europe. The amount cannot have been far short of 70,000 pounds but it took the Vatican over two months to send a letter of thanks, and I am absolutely certain that the Bishops never heard a word about the nature of the charities which benefited from their generosity. Needless to say, on the several occasions on which I visited Monsignor Montini in relation to the collection for the Comitato Civico I reminded him of these points and emphasized the need of keeping our subscriptions identifiable ? down to the last lire ? so that Professor Gedda should be able to give exact receipts and to express adequately to the Archbishops the thanks of the Italian Catholics. There is no point in my giving the details of the difficulties I encountered in my efforts to defend the rights of the subscribers, beyond saying that they were very numerous and extremely irritating. The lesson we have to learn for the next occasion is to avoid the complicated machinery of the Vatican Istituto per le opera di religione. In the case of the Armagh and Clogher subscriptions there was no difficulty because the ordinary banking facilities were used. At any rate we have gained our point and the ending has been satisfactory, and I suppose the less said about it the better.

The victory is being taken soberly by Gedda and those responsible, in a major degree, for it. They realize that Communism, numerically, is just as bad as it was at the '46 election. The four million majority of the Christian Democrats is to a large extent drawn from the voters whom Gedda's campaign brought to the polls and who had not voted in '46. Of course, the people have had an education, mainly by poster, such as no people ever had before, prior to elections, but the solid block of almost a third of the 26 million voters is, in Gedda's opinion, going to give Italy a lot to think about. For this reason the Comitato Civico is going to become a permanent organisation and is probably going to be reorganised on an international basis. The Italians, whose opinion is worth while, believe that Communism can be defeated more readily by a type of propaganda more Christian than political. Hence Gedda's emphasis on the sacred character of the family, of private property, the evils of modern capitalism, the responsibility before God of those who do not vote etc. At the present time there is no international Catholic organisation against Communism just as there is no national organisation against Communism except in Italy. It would therefore seem to be a movement to be encouraged by every possible means. Of course the Communists are crying out that they have been beaten by the Church's interference in politics, but they have so overworked their anti-Catholic propaganda during the elections that the people are tired of it and disinclined to believe even the most plausible stories. The forging of two whole volumes against the Vatican ? confessed within a few days by the perpetrator ... and which appeared at length in the two Chief left wing papers did a good deal to discredit this type of propaganda.

The fear of a coup d'Etat seems now remote. The three thousand men who went to the hills near Pavia (south of the Po) have been dispersed and have returned to their homes. No doubt they were acting under uncountermanded orders intended for circumstances in which the Communists would have been beaten by only a small margin. At the same time there is a certain nervousness about Russia's reaction to this defeat and it may well be a few months before things become relatively normal in Italy.

Everybody hopes that the Christian Democrats will show themselves thoroughgoing social reformers, especially in relation to the land. Neither Clericalism nor capitalism is wanted by the good Italian Catholic as elements of his political life. Gedda's master stroke was his manifesto treating capitalism and communism as almost equal enemies of the Christian worker. And most Italians of the professional classes are ardent social reformers and generally opposed to the selfish form of capitalism which Italians have to put [up] with. Everybody speaks well of de Gasperi, and his courageous speech emphasizing the need for social, especially land reform, has made a most favourable impression on those who were rather worried about the absolute majority of the C.D.

The chief lesson to be drawn from the elections is that the Church, having got another chance, has to get down to the task of putting her own house in order. In France and Italy less than fifteen million people are practising Catholics. In other words over seventy million Italians and Frenchmen do not practise. In Italy there are three hundred and eighty Bishops and sixty five thousand priests ... by far the highest proportion of clergy to people in any country in the whole world. The Holy Father knows where the weakness lies, and He is a wholehearted reformer, but he has to deal with such a weight of traditional prejudice that his methods will have to become much more radical if he is to succeed.

It is the first time that united Italy has had a dominating pro-Catholic party and the future course of Italian politics, if it is to be smooth and peaceful, will require the highest measure of restraint on the side both of Church and State.

Naturally the factor of American economic and financial aid was used with powerful effect both by Gedda and the politicians. The Communists had no counter propaganda since Russia's only exports to Italy were arms and paper both intended to reduce Italy to the status of being a mere satellite of Russia. When the Communists said they would bring peace, liberty and labour, the Comitato answered in their splendid posters ... 'the liberty of dictatorship, the peace of the graveyard and labour in the mines of Siberia.' As I have already informed the Minister, the Americans helped some of the political parties or groups or Newspapers with direct funds. The aid in this category was, on the whole, misguided and badly directed. To help a Freemason paper in Naples, for instance, which was on its last legs, in any case, for the simple reason that the southerns are anti-Freemason and sentimentally entirely Catholic, was a typical American blunder. Their agents here are, excellent fellows but they have the subconscious prejudices of most American protestants. They have learned a lot during the elections from Gedda and other distinguished Italians, and so far as I am concerned I did my best to interpret the Italian Catholic background to those of them with whom I have made contacts ... and whose discretion I could trust. It is interesting to note that Ireland was the only country that grasped the importance of the Catholic non-party organisation and realized that by helping it they were helping to defeat Communism in Western Europe including our own country. The American Hierarchy gave no response to Gedda's appeal and the English Hierarchy only came in at the Tail of the Irish movement by sending a credit of 5,000 pounds. The appeal was late in going out, and, perhaps, as in the case of Ireland, instead of being sent to the senior Archbishop, it should have been sent to all the Bishops. Of course, the American Hierarchy have been extremely generous to the Holy See during these difficult years, and it is possible that they did not realize that the Comitato Civico was in such competent hands. It is also possible, I hope, that the reports they are now receiving will inspire them to be in, in time for the payment of the bills.

Nobody could have realized, without being a positive spectator that an Italian organisation in any way connected with the Church could have evolved, between the 8th Febry and two weeks later, into an organisation with eighteen thousand committees based on the parishes and the local branches of Azione Cattolica. I hope to have a full report from the Comitato shortly giving a picture of the organisation and the work done. I shall try to have it translated into English and to secure that enough copies are sent to the Archbishops and Bishops who answered the appeal, to enable them to give one to all the principal subscribers. Of course Gedda is most anxious to do this and to show his gratitude in any other way suggested to him ? apart from the obvious course of writing letters to them.

The receipts from Gedda for the total sum of 4,025 sterling transmitted to him from the Department through the Embassy will be forwarded in the normal course. Acknowledgements have been telegraphed in each case by Gedda.

P.S.
The Total Sum received from Ireland to date by Gedda is