Reports reaching here from competent sources in Rome disclosed today that tension is mounting between the Italian Government and the Vatican over the Holy See’s refusal to follow Italy’s lead in adopting a pro-German attitude in the present European war.
“The Vatican is the chronic appendicitis of Italy,” National Councillor Francesco Giunta was said to have shouted during his sensational speech in the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations a week ago. This was the same speech in which he predicted that Italy would have to enter the war at Germany’s side at some time in the future.
Giunta made his speech last Thursday. On Friday Giudo Giudi-Buffardini, Mussolini’s Undersecretary for the Interior, told the deputies that while relations between Rome and the Vatican were good from an administrative point of view, there was considerable difference of opinion between the Holy See and the Fascist Government on the role of the State in national life and on the racial question.
Urging a ban on the Vatican organ Osservatore Romano unless it limits itself to Church matters, the Fascist leader Roberto Farinacci charged in his newspaper Regime Fascista today that Jews had recently given the paper 5,000,000 lire.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
