Italian Catholic press support for the Axis War

ABSTRACT

Within the larger debate over Italians’ attitudes toward the decision to join the Second World War on Germany’s side, and their subsequent attitude toward fighting alongside the Nazis, the question of the role played by the Roman Catholic Church remains controversial. By focusing on Italy’s three major Catholic daily newspapers for the years 1939 to 1943, and on the behind-the-scenes actions of the Fascist authorities, we here show one of the principal ways that the institutional Church communicated to Italy’s Catholics the proper attitudes to take toward the war. The active role played by the papers and their editors in urging Italian Catholic support for the Axis cause is made clear. We examine the Bologna-based L’Avvenire d’Italia, the Rome-based L’Avvenire, and the Milan-based L’Italia, along with a variety of government and church-related archives.

RIASSUNTO

All’interno del più ampio dibattito relativo all’orientamento dell’opinione pubblica in Italia in seguito alla decisione di entrare in guerra a fianco dell’alleato nazista, la questione del ruolo svolto dalla Santa Sede rimane ancora controversa. Concentrandoci sui tre principali quotidiani cattolici diffusi sul territorio nazionale nel periodo compreso tra il 1939 e il 1943, inseriti nel sistema di controllo delle autorità fasciste, il nostro saggio vuole mostrare il principale strumento con cui le istituzioni ecclesiastiche comunicarono ai cattolici italiani gli atteggiamenti adeguati da tenere nei confronti della guerra. Emerge così chiaramente il ruolo attivo svolto da queste testate giornalistiche e dai loro redattori nell’incoraggiare il sostegno alla causa dell’Asse. Nel saggio prendiamo in esame i quotidiani L’Avvenire d’Italia con sede a Bologna, L’Avvenire con sede aRoma eL’Italia con sede a Milano, ponendoli in relazione con la documentazione edita ed inedita che emerge sull’argomento dagli archivi degli apparati di governo del regime e da quelli della Santa Sede.

KEYWORDS:

• Fascism
• Second World War
• Roman Catholic Church
• newspapers

PAROLE CHIAVE:

• Fascismo
• Seconda Guerra Mondiale
• Chiesa Cattolica
• Giornali

Notes

1. In Giornalisti di regime, examining the Italian press during Fascism, Allotti (2012) completely ignores the Catholic press. More generally, however, scholars making reference to the Catholic press in this context tend to focus on the Vatican (and not Italian) publication of L’Osservatore romano (see, for example, Varnier 2011; Murialdi 1996; Licata 1964).

2. This is not to deny that the eyes of government censors – and of Mussolini himself – were also keeping track of the diocesan and parish bulletins, which occasionally gave rise to the intervention of local censors. Illustrative is the police report reviewing the annual Easter messages sent via diocesan bulletins to the laity in the spring of 1943, which noted that most if not all contained notes of ‘patriotic inspiration’, including ‘invocations of Victory of our Arms’. Notably, the report bore the stamp: ‘Seen by the Duce’ (“Relazione sulle pastorali vescovili per la quaresima 1943,” 10; Archivio Centrale dello Stato [ACS], Ministero dell’Interno [MI], Gabinetto-RSI, b. 30).

3. The periodization employed here has been previously adopted by other scholars of Italy’s experience in the Second World War, as, for example, in the works of Della Volpe (1998, 2005).

4. On the readership of the Catholic press in these years, see Menozzi (2003) and the larger special issue on the Catholic press and the Fascist regime for which it provides an introduction.

5. Report on the history of L’Avvenire d’Italia by its director’s office, Bologna, dated 15 September 1941, historical archive of the Istituto per la Storia dell’Azione Cattolica e del Movimento Cattolico in Italia [ISACEM], PG V, b. 12, fasc. 5.

6. Eugenio Pacelli to Lamberto Vignoli, December 9, 1936, ISACEM, PG IV, b. 1, fasc. 9.

7. ACS, MI, Direzione generale di Pubblica Sicurezza, Fascicoli personali, Serie-A, b. 60 “Manzini”, informant report, 28 February 1932.

8. Monsignor Giuseppe Pizzardo was then the Vatican official responsible for oversight of Italian Catholic Action.

9. Archivio Storico del Ministero degli Affari Esteri [ASMAE], Ambasciata d’Italia presso la Santa Sede [AISS], b. 77.

10. ASMAE, AISS, b. 77, fasc. 1.

11. The Italian ambassador to the Holy See, Cesare De Vecchi, one of the Quadrumvirs of Fascism, phoned Gaetano Polverelli, responsible for the press under the Ministry of Popular Culture, urging the desirability of creating a ‘Roman Catholic newspaper – Italian – so that this can be overseen by the [government] Press Office’ to counterbalance the independent and untrustworthy Osservatore romano (22 June 1933, ASMAE, AISS, b. 77, fasc. 1).

12. These figures from the previously cited 1941 report of the director’s office of L’Avvenire d’Italia, found in ISACEM, PG, V, b. 12, fasc. 5 (see also Lugaro 1988, 40).

13. The wartime circulation figure, for the winter of 1940–41, is found in a Ministero della Cultura Popolare review of newspaper circulation at ACS, Minculpop, Gabinetto, b. 19.

14. Although Don Busti would remain in good standing with the Fascist government until Mussolini’s fall in July 1943, he would subsequently run afoul of the Republic of Salò and flee to Switzerland (Majo 1974, 56). A letter Busti wrote to Milan’s archbishop Ildefonso Schuster describing his situation in Lucerne is found in Archivio Apostolico Vaticano, Segr. St., Varie, anno 1943, pos. 2054.

15. Charles-Roux to Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Paris, 2 January 1939, historical archives, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Nantes, RSS, 576, PO/1, 1090. Charles-Roux reported that he had first complained about what he referred to as ‘the Catholic-Fascist press’ to Mons. Montini (future Pope Paul VI and then one of Secretary of State Luigi Maglione’s two primary assistants), and then to Cardinal Giuseppe Pizzardo, the Vatican official responsible for Catholic Action.

16. The newly opened Vatican archives for these years contains, for example, a formal protest on the part of the Milan archdiocese against the seizure of the 23 April 1940 issue of L’Italia, whose first page editorial, “Guerra, Guerra …, ” suggesting that it might be best if Italy were to remain out of the war, was deemed objectionable by the government (Archivio Apostolico Vaticano [AAV], Segr. St., Pubblicazioni, anno 1940, pos. 322).

17. As revealed in the newly opened Vatican archives. See, for example, the correspondence and documents related to subventions to both L’Italia and L’Avvenire d’Italia in 1941 from the Federazione Nazionale Fascista (AAV, Segr. St., Pubblicazioni, anno 1941, pos 405); similar documents of government subventions through the Federazione Nazionale Fascista Editori Giornali e Agenzie di Stampa for L’Italia, L’Avvenire d’Italia and L’Avvenire for 1942–1943 are documented at AAV, Segr. St., Enti commerciali e profani, anno 1943, pos. 5.

18. The Italian declaration of war would produce an additional level of bureaucracy and control to the censorship of the press. A new law for the ‘civil mobilization’ of the press was announced on 21 June 1940, along with a list of the affected publications. Initially, this included L’Italia but not L’Avvenire d’Italia or Rome’s L’Avvenire. However, the latter two were the subject of a special decree emanated two months later. The new censorship regime involved two prongs: one overseen by military authorities concerning reporting of military actions, and the other involving political censorship by civil governmental authorities. A report on how this system functioned in its first two years, “Collaborazione tra la Direzione Generale Stampa Italiana e le Forze armate,” dated 16 June 1942, is found in: ACS, Ministero della Cultura popolare, Gabinetto, b. 140.

19. For details on Pius XI’s displeasure with Italy’s new racial policy, see Kertzer (2014, 296–315), Fattorini (2008) and Wolf (2008). On the change in policy that came with the election of Pius XII, see Coppa (2013), Garzia (1988), Menozzi (2008), Ventresca (2012) and Pollard (2014).

20. Mussolini’s own paper, Il Popolo d’Italia, taking advantage of the coincidence of the Pope’s death with the anniversary of the Lateran Pacts, ran the banner headline “La Conciliazione realizzata dal genio del Duce si consolida nel tempo come evento storico” (February 12, 1939, 1). Even Regime fascista, the country’s most fiercely anticlerical Fascist paper, ran a glowing story on the Pope, beginning: ‘The Pope of Conciliation! Thus, in expressing his great sympathy, the Duce saluted the Holy Memory of Pius XI with deep reverence’ (G. Sommi Picenardi, “Il Papa della Pace,” Regime fascista, 11 February 1939, 1).

One indication that this image was widely shared by Italians comes from a police informant report recounting the immediate reaction in Rome to news of the Pope’s death: ‘Notwithstanding the fact that it is the general impression that in these most recent times relations with the Vatican were not the best, there is unanimous sympathy among all circles and among the masses in general for the figure of the Pope who, with the Duce, achieved the Conciliation and who will pass into history above all as the Pope of the Conciliazione’ (ACS, Ministero di Cultura Popolare, Gabinetto, b. 161, 10 February 1939).

21. The Civiltà cattolica article was written by Angelo Brucculeri, S.J., and appeared as “La pace religiosa e i Patti del Laterano,” in L’Avvenire d’Italia [AI], 7 February 1939, 3. Back in November 1938, the French ambassador to the Holy See had lamented to Paris the appearance of an article in Civiltà cattolica offering effusive praise to Mussolini and attributing Europe’s problems to the inequity of the Treaty of Versailles. The article, said the ambassador, read as if it were inspired by the Fascist ministry of propaganda (Charles-Roux to Foreign Ministry, Paris, 15 November 1938, historical archives, Ministère des affaires étrangères, La Courneuve, Saint-Siege, b. 38.)

22. “Manifestazione di cordoglio al Gran Consiglio del Fascismo,” L’Osservatore romano [OR], 12 February 1939, 2.

23. “Il Pontefice Pio dodicesimo,” Corriere della sera, March 3, 1939, 1.

24. Only a few weeks earlier this new body had replaced the lower house of the legislature in Fascist Italy.

25. “Il discorso di S. E. Buffarini alla Camera dei Fasci …, ” L’Italia, 12 May 1939, 2; “L’ampia documentazione di S.E. Buffarini-Guidi sulla politica interna del Regime,” L’Avvenire of Rome [AR], 13 May 1939, 3.

26. Revealing is the fact that when the date of the new Pope’s coronation was announced, Il Popolo d’Italia headlined its front-page story “Pio XII invoca pace e giustizia” (4 March 1939, 1) while that same day Roberto Farinacci, editor of Regime fascista, titled his editorial on Pius XII’s election “Pace unita alla giustizia” (4 March 1939, 1). A few days earlier, Farinacci had given a speech at Modena’s Institute of Fascist Culture, one section of which he labelled “Peace with Justice” (“La conferenza di Roberto Farinacci al Teatro Municipale di Modena, Regime fascista, March 2, 1939, 3).

27. “Convergenze,” L’Italia, 16 May 1939, 1.

28. “Le condizioni del Cattolicesimo in Germania continuano ad aggravarsi,” AI, 13 July 1938, 1; “La situazione religiosa nel Reich: Nuovi decreti anticattolici,” AI, 23 October 1938, 2; “La Chiesa nel Terzo Reich: Nuove misure restrittive. Le Scuole confessionali soppresse,” AI, 26 October 1938, 2.

29. “Un monito e un chiarimento,” AI, 26 November 1938, 1.

30. “L’ostracismo religioso nelle scuole tedesche,” OR, 14 January 1939, 2; “La situazione religiosa nel Reich,” OR, 19 January 1939, 2.

31. “La situazione religiosa nel Reich,” OR, 22 January 1939, 2.

32. “Dopo il discorso del Cancelliere del Reich,” OR, 3 February 1939, 1. See also in OR: “Cronache del Reich. Contro l’Azione Cattolica,” 4 February 1939, 2; and “Cronache del Reich,” 6 February 1939, 2.

33. “Il nuovo Pontefice e la situazione religiosa in Germania,” L’Italia, March 12, 1939, 1.

34. “Situazione migliorata fra il Reich e la Santa Sede?” AI, 30 April 1939, 1. An exception to OR’s new policy of avoiding criticism of Nazi Germany came in a page 2 story in mid May, which quoted a pastoral letter of German Cardinal Preysing complaining about the disappearance of Catholic confessional schools in Berlin (“Una pastorale del Vescovo di Berlino sull’istruzione religiosa,” OR, 15 May 1939, 2.

35. “La crisi del neopaganismo tedesco,” by S.N., L’Italia, 8 June 1939, 2.

36. “La collaborazione del Clero italiano,” L’Italia, March 25, 1939, 2.

37. L’occupazione dell’Albania,” and “Un monito e un auspicio” by N., AR, 8 April 1939, 1; “Tutti i Principali Centri dell’Albania occupati dalle magnifiche truppe italiane,” L’Italia, 11 April 1939, 2; “Omaggio al Duce del Vescovo di Coriza,” AR, 21 April 1939, 1.

38. “L’Italia non prenderà iniziativa alcuna di carattere militare,” and “Sperare Ancora?” by R. Manzini, AI, September 2, 1939, 1. See also “Il Duce voleva salvare la pace,” AI, 5 September 1939, 1; “Il Duce ha tentato con un estremo sforzo di salvare la pace,” L’Italia, 5 September 1939, 1.

39. “S.E. il Cardinale restituisce la visita al Federale alla sede della Federazione,” L’Italia, 24 December 4.

40. “Chiesa e stato,” by Alfredo Goffredo, AR, 7 February 1940, 2; “All’Ambasciata d’Italia,” OR, 12 February 1940, 2.

41. Alfieri to Ciano, 12 April 1940, ASMAE, AISS, b. 113, n. 926/386.

42. “L’indirizzo generale della politica interna …, ” L’Italia, 27 April 1940, 1; “La situazione,” by N, AR, 28 April 1940, 1.

43. “Pio XII al popolo polacco,” and “Senza Odio” by R. Manzini, AI, 1 October 1939, 1. The later controversy over Pius XII’s silence during the Holocaust had an early precedent in the wake of the German invasion of Poland, with news spreading through Europe and beyond of Polish Catholic anger at the Pope for his failure to condemn Hitler for the invasion. On the same day that the OR published an angry front page rebuttal to the charge, albeit without any mention of Germany or German culpability, the AI republished it: “Santa Sede e Polonia,” OR, 15 October 1939, 1; “Santa Sede e Polonia,” AR, 15 October 1939, 6.

44. Among such stories appearing in OR: “I prigionieri polacchi nei campi sovietici,” 1 January 1940, 1; “La campagna del ‘senza Dio’ nella Polonia occupata dai Sovieti,” 25 January 1940, 2; “Le truppe sovietiche in Polonia,” 17 February 1940, 6; “Persecuzioni sovietiche nella Polonia occupata,” 9 March 1940, 6; “L’attività dei “senza Dio” in Polonia,” 3 April 1940, 4. Among such stories in Italy’s Catholic press in these months: “Il terrore sovietico nei territori polacchi occupati,” AR, 24 January 1940, 1; “Il martirio della Polonia sotto il giogo sovietico,” L’Italia, 15 February 1940, 1; “Metodi sovietici: La lotta antireligiosa nella Polonia orientale,” L’Italia, 22 March 1940, 6.

Vatican radio, which was Jesuit-run, would over the course of these years offer a somewhat more variegated picture, linked in good part to its ability to craft different messages to listeners in different countries listening in different languages. There is little evidence though that its Italian language broadcasts offered a different message from the Vatican newspaper. For more on Vatican radio in this period, see Adler (2004), Monticone (1979) and Perin (2015).

45. As De Felice (1981, 376–377) pointed out in his biography of Mussolini, when the Spanish civil war broke out in 1936 it was the Italian Catholic press that, even more than the Fascist press, was urging Italian military intervention on Franco’s side. At the time of Italy’s declaration of war on Britain, this was a very recent memory.

46. “Lo spirito e le armi” by Novus, AR, 10 May 1940, 1; “La via del dovere,” L’Italia, 19 May 1940, 1.

47. “La situazione: Le premesse della Vittoria” by Novus, AR, 12 June 1940, 1; Gaetano Polverelli, “Marciare insieme,” Popolo d’Italia, 22 May 1939, 1.

48. “Montura di guerra” by Raimondo Manzini, AI, 12 June 1940, 1; “Il Card. Arcivescovo di Bologna invita il popolo alla preghiera,” AI, 12 June 1940, 2.

49. “Il patriottico appello dell’Azione Cattolica Italiana,” AR, 14 June 1940, 1; Un nobilissimo appello del Direttore Generale dell’Azione Cattolica Italiana,” L’Italia, 14 June 1940, 2; “Patriottico appello dell’Azione Cattolica Italiana,” AI, 14 June 1940, 2; “Quando la Patria chiama. … Nobilissimo appello della Gioventù Cattolica Italiana,” AI, 18 June 1940, 2; “Quando la Patria Chiama,” AR, 18 June 1940, 3.

50. “I doveri verso la Patria in armi,” AR, 23 June 1940, 2; “I doveri verso la Patria in armi,” AI, 23 June 1940, 2. The Italian embassy to the Holy See sent a copy of the latter to Ciano on 23 June (ASMAE, AISS, b. 164).

51. “Un nobile appello di Padre Gemelli,” L’Italia, 19 June 1940; “Un nobile appello di Padre Gemelli ai professori e studenti dell’Università Cattolica,” AI, 20 June 1940, 2; “Un infiammato discorso di Padre Gemelli,” AR, 20 June 1940, 2.

52. ASMAE, AISS, b. 164, 19 June 1940. The AI clipping attached to the report to Ciano was the article “Un infiammato discorso di Padre Gemelli: ‘Credere, pregare, obbedire, vincere’.” ASMAE, AISS, b. 164, 1 July 1940.

53. From a report dated 25 June 1940, intercepted by the Italian police (ACS, DAGR, A5G, IIGM, b. 72, 10 October 1940).

54. A. Brucculeri, S.J., “La concezione cristiana della guerra,” L’Italia, 17 July 1940, 3.

55. “Un grande discorso di Hitler,” AR, 21 July 1940, 1.

56. “La situazione,” by N., AR, 21 July 1940, 1; “Il Card Schuster visita il posto di ristoro per i soldati,” OR, 27 July 1940, 4.

57. “Nuovo ordine europeo,” by L.M., L’Italia, August 28, 1940, 1; “Giovane Europa,” by R. Manzini, AI, 11 October 1940, 1.

58. “La guerra nel piano della Provvidenza Divina” by P. Scaramuzzi O.F.M., AR, 23 October 1940, 3.

59. “Volti del tempo, by R. Manzini., AI, 27 October 1940, 1. For its part, the Avvenire of Rome editorial dedicated to the anniversary of the Fascist revolution noted that it came this time in the midst “of the revolutionary war of the proletarian States against the empires that hoard the world’s riches.” It then added its own paean to Mussolini’s countless accomplishments. “La situazione,” by N., AR, 29 October 1940, 1.

60. “La Parola di Pio XII ai giovani d’Italia,” AR, 12 November 1940, 1; “S.E. Mons. Colli esalta nella Basilica Vaticana le glorie religiose e nazionali dei Giovani Cattolici d’Italia,” AR, 12 November 1940, 2.

61. “L’Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore inaugura il suo XX anno accademico,” OR, 20 November 1940, 2; “Il contributo di fede, di dottrina e di eroismo dei giovani dell’Ateneo nel discorso di Padre Gemelli,” AR, 20 November 1940, 2.

62. “Invocazione e dovere,” by R. Manzini, AI, 24 November 1940, 1.

63. “3 Gennaio,” L’Italia, 3 January 1941, 1; “Popoli in cammino,” by R. Manzini, AI, 1 January 1940; “Alta visione,” R. Manzini, AI, 15 January 1941, 1.

64. “L’Azione Cattolica Italiana per la Patria in armi,” AR, 11 January 1941, 1; “Un indirizzo di Mons. Colli all’ACI,” OR, 13 January 1941, 2.

65. “Un alto messaggio dell’Ordinario militare ai Cappellani delle Forze Armate,” AR, 15 January 1941, 1.

66. “Per una grande manifestazione di Fede,” Fr. Agostino Gemelli O.F.M., AI, 22 January 1941, 2; “La consacrazione di un grande popolo al Sacro Cuore,” AR, 23 January 1941, 1; “La consacrazione del popolo italiano al Sacro Cuore di Gesù per i soldati e per la vittoria,” L’Italia, 23 January 1941, 1.

67. “Fede di un Popolo,” by R. Manzini, AI, 2 February 1941, 1.

68. “Solenni funzioni nelle Chiese d’Italia per la vittoria e per la consacrazione del popolo al S. Cuore,”AR, 4 February 1941, 2. A week later, the paper returned to the great success of the event, quoting from various letters from parish priests reporting that the numbers of parishioners who attended rivalled those who came for Easter mass. One ecstatic priest reported that of his fifteen hundred parishioners, thirteen hundred had taken communion at the ceremony (“I trionfi della Fede nella giornata propiziatoria,” AR, 11 February 1941, 3).

69. “Il Grande urto,” R. Mazzini, AI, 24 June 1941, 1; “Dietro lo schermo ideologico,” AI, 5 July 1941, 1.

70. “La situazione,” by N., AR, 27 June 1941, 1; “La nuova crociata contro i ‘senza Dio’,” by N., AR, 20 July 1941, 1.

71. Attolico to Ciano, 1 July 1941, ASMAE, Affari Politici, 1931–1945, Santa Sede [APSS], b. 55, tel. [phone]; Attolico to Ciano, 4 July 1941, ASMAE, APSS, b. 55, tel. 6668; Attolico to Ciano, 8 August 1941, ASMAE, AISS, b. 194. Attolico to Ciano and to the Minister of Popular Culture, 9 August 1941, ASMAE, AISS b. 193, n. 2352/1028. The German embassy to the Holy See was also keeping its government apprised of the support that the Italian Catholic press was giving to the war (Fritz Menshausen [Counselor to the German embassy to the Holy See] to Ernst von Weizsäcker, State Secretary, Berlin, 12 September 1941, Documents of German Foreign Policy, series D, v. 13, n. 309).

72. Among the pieces in L’Italia citing the papal encyclical in suggesting papal backing for the war were: “Chi tace e chi parla,”: 4 July 1941, 1; “Tramonto di un mito,” 24 August 1941, 1; and “Per vincere il bolscevismo,” by the paper’s editor Don Mario Busti, 7 September 1941, 1 (from which the quote on the Roman legions is taken); and “Antibolscevismo Cristiano,” by Primo Montanari, 8 November 1941, 1–2.

73. “La lotta contro il bolscevismo in una nobile Pastorale dell’Arcivescovo di Gorizia,” AR, 22 July 1941, 2.

74. Attolico to Ciano, 2 August 1941, Documenti Diplomatici Italiani, series 9, vol. 7, n. 450.

75. Cardinal Adeodato Piazza was Patriarch of Venice. Cardinal Luigi Lavitrano was Archbishop of Palermo.

76. Tardini’s notes, along with Maglione’s additional comments, dated 17–20 September 1941, are found in Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, vol. 5, n. 84. Attolico to Ciano, 20 September 1941, ASMAE, APSS, b. 54.

77. “Un appello di S.E. Mons. Bartolomasi ai Cappellani Militari,” AR, 19 October 1941, 2.

78. Attolico to Ciano and to the Minister of Popular Culture, 31 October 1941, ASMAE, AISS, b. 193, n. 3194/1369.

79. D’Arcy Osborne to Foreign Office, London, 5 February 1942, British National Archives, Kew, F.O. 371, 33411, 37–39; D’Arcy Osborne to Foreign Office, London, 29 April 1942, British National Archives, Kew, F.O. 371, 33411, 133–137. On Osborne’s second report, the same foreign office official [“Meade”] added the handwritten comment on 29 May: “Prof [Arnold] Toynbee & we might ask Mr Osborne how it is that a Jesuit review displays an Axis bias when their General [Wladimir Ledóchowski] is a Pole.” An additional handwritten comment, “Yes,” followed, with the initials P.D. (Pierson Dixon).

80. Ministero degli Affari Esteri al Ministero della Cultura Popolare e altri ministeri, 16 June 1942, ACS, Presidenza Consiglio dei Ministri, 40–43, B. 3180, Cat. G 36-5, telespresso n. 14/000461; Guariglia to Ciano and Minister of Popular Culture, 13 November 1942, ASMAE, APSS, b. 62, tel. [phone]; Guariglia to Ciano, 9 December 1942, ASMAE, APSS, b. 58, tel. [phone]; Guariglia to Ciano and Minister of Popular Culture, 21 December 1942, ASMAE, APSS, b. 62, tel. [phone].

81. Raffaele Guariglia to Ciano and the Minister of Popular Culture, 13 November 1942, ASMAE, APSS, b. 62, tel. [phone].

82. “Obbedire al Papa,” L’Italia, 31 January 1943, 1.

83. The report, dated 12 February 1943, signed by Blasco Lanza d’Ajeta, who served as second-in-charge of the Italian embassy to the Holy See, also bore the stamp “Ciano” in the area of the signature and was addressed to the Ministry of Popular Culture, and copied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (ASMAE, APSS, b. 68, tel. 459). The editorial in question, by Imolo Marconi, was published by L’Avvenire of Rome on 31 January.

84. “Civiltà e bolscevismo” by Luigi Mietta, L’Italia, 16 February 1943, 1.

85. “La Diga,” by d.m.b. (Don Mario Busti), 21 February 1943, 1.

86. Ciano to Ministry of Popular Culture, with copy to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 24 February 1943, ASMAE, APSS, b. 68, tel. 599.

87. Ciano to Ministry of Popular Culture, with copy to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 8 April 1943, ASMAE, APSS, b. 68, tel. 1124; Ambassador Holy See to Ministry of Popular Culture, with copy to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 13 May 1943, ASMAE, APSS, b. 68, tel. 1553.

88. See, among other works, Margotti (1999) and Miccoli (2003, 2004). Among the earliest scholars to demonstrate the falsity of the then prevailing view of the Church and the war were Soave and Zunino (1977).

89. Perhaps the most prominent Italian historian of the Catholic press in Italy during Fascism, Franco Malgeri, reflected a common interpretation of the apparent support given by the Catholic press to Fascism and the war in emphasizing that ‘life was not easy for the Catholic press, as the police files and the surveillance undertaken by the bodies responsible for censorship demonstrate. Controls were severe and capillary, going from the large daily newspaper to the most modest parish bulletin’ (Malgeri 1990, 45). Likewise, in his examination of the Italian press under Fascism, Forno (2005, 258–259) argues that there are ‘many demonstrations of the efforts made by those responsible for the Catholic newspapers during the years of the regime to carve out this license of alterity, efforts which were then shown, after the fall of the regime, not to have failed in their task’. Other historians of the Italian Catholic press in the twentieth century simply seem eager to skip quickly past the role the papers played during the war, as evident in Angelo Majo’s (1974) history of one of the papers we focus on here, L’Italia.

The previously cited Ministero dell’Interno report on the bishops’ Easter message in 1943 offers insight into the dynamics of the government censorship of the Catholic press. After stating that the bishops’ pastoral messages that spring had been judged sufficiently patriotic and so not requiring any seizure of the diocesan bulletins in which they were distributed, the report added: “In any case, however, the Ministry of Internal Affairs need only continue to firmly maintain the thesis that it has repeatedly affirmed on other occasions, and shared as well by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Popular Culture: that is, that the right to free publication contemplated in … the Concordat with the Holy See should be interpreted as being exclusively limited to the ‘acts regarding the spiritual care of the faithful’ emitted by the Bishops ‘in the sphere of their competence’,” and not any statements that are “essentially or prevalently political” (ACS, MI, Gabinetto-RSI, b. 30, relazione del 26 aprile 1943, 17–18).

90. Examples are many and cover a broad range. Mussolini, wrote Giovagnoli (1993, 109, 114) in his study of Italian Catholics and the war in 1942, was incensed by the ‘pacifism’ of Catholics, explaining, ‘Mussolini’s reference was above all to the latest pronouncements of Pius XII. … The constant appeal for peace was not only one of the central lines of Pius XII’s diplomacy. In the Pacellian [i.e. the Pope’s] invocation of peace the episcopate, clergy and faithful all recognized themselves. The Italian Catholic world … did not take part in the Fascists’ enthusiasm for the war … ’. The list of historical works identifying the Italian Catholic world with Pius XII and identifying the Pope with outspoken opposition to the war would be a long one, but includes: Napolitano (2002), Riccardi (2008) and Guiducci (2013). One of the things many of these works have in common is the extensive popular press coverage of their publication, complete with fulsome praise of Pius XII’s wartime heroism. A recent example is provided by the publication of Catananti (2020).

91. In similarly calling attention to the studied ambiguity of the Pope’s speeches during the war, Chassard (2015, 171) has detailed the way that the German ambassadors to the Holy See used his words in an effort to persuade authorities in Berlin that the Pope sided with the Axis powers. Rhodes (1975, 222) noted that in these years Pius XII ‘developed his own special brand of baroque oratory which was often far above the heads of his listeners’.

92. Moro (1988, 82) has made a similar point, linking the appearance of the Vatican film with “the birth of the myth of Pius XII in contrast [contrapposizione] to that of the Duce”.

93. Manzini would resume his editorship of L’Avvenire d’Italia after the war and be rewarded in 1959 by Pope John XXIII with appointment as the editor of L’Osservatore romano.

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Notes on contributors

David I. Kertzer

David I. Kertzer, Paul Dupee University Professor of Social Science at Brown University, wasawarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Biography for The Pope and Mussolini (2014). His book The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (1997), published in seventeen languages, was a finalist for the 1997 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Among his other works are The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican’s Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism (2001), Amalia’s Tale (2008), and The Pope Who Would be King: Pius IX and the Emergence of Modern Europe (2018).

Roberto Benedetti

Roberto Benedetti received his PhD in modern and contemporary Italian history at the University of Rome, La Sapienza. He is the director and cofounder of the online history journal www.giornaledistoria.net. Among his publications are “Il ‘gran teatro’ della giustizia penale: i luoghi della pubblicità della pena nella Roma del XVIII secolo,” in I luoghi della città. Roma moderna e contemporanea, eds. M. Boiteux, M. Caffiero, and B. Marin, (Rome: École Française de Rome, 2010), 153–197; and “Dalla galera all’ergastolo. Storia del carcere per ecclesiastici criminali,” Ricerche di storia sociale e religiosa 81, no. 1 (2012): 15–69.