Vatican Organ Hits Nazi Race Theories on Eve of Hitler’s Rome Visit

On the eve of the arrival in Rome of Chancellor Hitler, the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano publishes, in a prominent position, extracts from recent German racial studies which vaunt the superiority of the Nordic races over those in the Mediterranean area — Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese.

The Holy See organ cites passages in which the German authors likened the Mediterranean peoples to the Negroid races, made disagreeable comment about the Italians, and expressed the opinion that Italy’s colonization attempts in Africa will be all the easier because the Italians are not so particular about racial mixture, since “the racial difference between them and the Africans is not very great.”

After pointing out that the German writers arrived at similar conclusions regarding Spain and Portugal, Osservatore Romano remarks:

“We have already had occasion to say that such a viewpoint on the Mediterranean peoples — who gave birth to a civilization which is that of the entire world — automatically exposes the anti-scientific and partisan structure of such theories, which are unsupportable in relation to history and reality.

“We merely add that when Christianity rises up against such racism, it not only refutes its materialistic and zoological essentials but also the dangerous consequences which destroy, at one and the same time, the fraternity of nations, their dignity and their reciprocal esteem — that is to say, the necessary bases and conditions for cooperation and peace between nations.

“Racism, as its masters with the concept of a superior race understand it, result, if not in scorning other races, at least in considering them as inferior. This contains the evident germ of the division and rivalries of dominating expansionism, which are the negation of understanding, equilibrium and peace between nations.”