Pietro Secchia 1948
Written: By Pietro Secchia, 1948;
Source: For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy! Vol. 2, no. 4; February 15, 1948;
Transcribed: David Adams, March 2022.
In all capitalist countries the Vatican and the upper ranks of the clergy invariably sided with the conservative and reactionary ruling classes, with the big industrialists, landlords and bankers.
The church leaders were always closely associated with fascism in the countries where the terrorist dictatorship of fascism held sway and fully supported and abetted its policy. The Vatican supported Mussolini in Italy, Hitler in Germany, Dolfuss and Schuschnigg in Austria; it supported the fascist aggression against the Spanish people and to this day actively supports Franco’s terrorist regime.
From the very birth of the fascist movement in Italy and throughout the twenty years of its domination the Vatican preached obedience to fascism. The Pope hailed Mussolini as “the man, sent by Providence,” gave his blessing to the adventures and criminal aggression of fascism against other nations.
It was only when the military defeat of fascism became an obvious and inevitable fact that the Vatican made shift to change its policy, sought to forget its recent past, started looking around for new points of support and depicted itself as a champion of democracy.
The double-dealing policy pursued by the top circles of finance capital during the Nazi occupation found apt disciples among the princes of the Church.
Until the very last minute the Vatican tried to save fascism from defeat, and upon meeting with failure it did everything possible to secure a compromise peace.
After the overthrow of fascism in Italy the Vatican set in motion all levers, material and ecclesiastical, in an endeavour to save the monarchy.
Today the entire activities of the Vatican are directed against the popular democratic forces, towards bolstering up the power of the oligarchy of Italy’s industrialists and landlords, towards the realisation of the predatory plans of American imperialism. The Vatican is bitterly hostile to the countries of the new democracy and lends every support to any campaign and provocation against the USSR.
What is the explanation for the Vatican’s traditional anti- democratic and reactionary policy? It would be wrong to ascribe it to purely ideological, religious and clerical reasons. The present-day Vatican is, above all, a big financial power. The Pope and the princes are closely linked with the leading capitalist circles throughout the world. Their ties with finance capital, with the banks and the great capitalist powers are so obvious that they cannot be concealed. Nor does the Vatican make any pretence at concealment.
“Italia”, the weekly journal of the “Catholic Action” organisation, commenting on the expose of the Church tie-up with industrial and finance companies, contained in Comrade Togliatti’s report to the Sixth Congress of the Italian Communist Party, said:
“We fail to understand how the possession of economic wealth can be taken to mean a conjugal union with capitalism? In society, where private property is juridically recognised it is the duty or a juridical body like the Church to possess property in order to realise its aims. The Church and its organisations have concrete problems which are linked with their outer life and which call for a solution ..."
This is a frank confession by the hierarchy that the Vatican today represents a powerful financial force. Nor is it surprising therefore that this force is actively collaborating in the reactionary policy of big capital and, in particular, in carrying out the expansionist and aggressive policy of American imperialism.
The Vatican is a huge International financial trust. It is well- nigh impossible to assess the exact extent of its investments, especially abroad, since both its real estate and stockholding are in the names of trusted individuals. But Italian economists and financial institutions have collated considerable, although far from complete, data on this question. And the journal, “Herald of Economic Policy”, organ of the Institute of Social Problems, recently published some of the data.
In France the “French-Italian Bank for South America,” which prior to the war had a capital of 50 million francs, is the property of the Vatican The bank’s board of directors is in Paris. It has branches in Holland and is one of the bulwarks of fascism in the Argentine. The director of the ”French ,Italian Bank” is the general governor, or more correctly speaking, the minister of finance of the Vatican-Baron Bernardino Nogara who, in his day represented Mussolini in Berlin at the discussions on the Dawes Plan.
The Vatican holds 70 per cent of the capital in the Societe Textiles du Nord and a large part of the capital in the Banca Galicienne Manant, not to mention one-third of the shares in the Worms Bank, the leaders of which collaborated with the Germans. It is estimated that the Vatican has a capital of 200 million pre-war francs in the various joint-stock companies in France.
In Spain the Church which gives whole-hearted support to fascism, is itself, the biggest feudal-capitalist undertaking. The Jesuits possess vast real estate, especially in Barcelona, Madrid, Santandero and Seville. In Portugal they control the Lisbon Banco Ultramarino which, in its turn, controls concessions and plantations in the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola.
The Vatican’s biggest investments are in America, and especially in the United States.
In Buenos Aires the Vatican holds shares the tramway, electric power, gas and water supply companies is a shareholder in the “Mihanovich” steamship company, which has the monopoly of shipping on the River Plate.
It controls the Spanish-American Bank, with headquarters in Madrid and branches in the Argentine, Brazil and Bolivia. In Bolivia the Vatican owns tin mines, which are exploited by the Guggenheim Trust of New York. (This financial operation was engineered in 1938 by Myron Taylor, at present Truman’s representative to the Vatican.)
In Brazil the Jesuits control the main rubber and textile enterprises as well as several weaving and flour mills. In the United States the Vatican has shares or big capital investments in Sinclair Oil, Anaconda Cooper and in a number of other ore mining industries. In the US its interests are mainly represented by the Morgan Bank.
Of the religious orders connected with the Vatican, the Jesuits possess vast estates and considerable joint stock capital.
From their stronghold in Switzerland, the Jesuits exercise control over the world’s largest electrical enterprises and over the bank of the electrical industry. It has been estimated that the total Vatican joint stock capital in different countries amounts to 3,000 million pre-war lira or the equivalent of 300,000 million post-war lira. But these figures are incomplete.
While it is difficult to give an exact estimate of’ the capital investments and the financial connections of the Vatican abroad, its share and that of other church bodies in the general joint-stock capital in Italy has been estimated precisely enough. This is manifested in two forms: a.) control (possession of majority of shares), and b.) participation without control. At the present time the Vatican controls 30 Italian joint-stock companies with a nominal capital of 300 million pre-war lira. These companies include among others the biggest credit companies. By means of its capital investments the Vatican has a finger, in practically every Italian industry, particularly in the electrical, chemical, “metallurgical, textile” and food industries and also in transport. land and insurance societies. Vatican holdings in the second group of enterprises are estimated at more than 250 million pre-war lira.
To a considerable extent the economic life of Italy is controlled by the Vatican through some 40 Catholic banks and a hundred “popular banks”, whose total deposits on December 31, 1946 exceeded 400,000 million lira, or considerably more than half of the total national savings.
Moreover, as is the case abroad, the Vatican and religious bodies dispose of vast estates in Italy. The value of immovable property in Italy is estimated at 380,000 million lira.
The financial might of the Vatican and its links with the world’s biggest companies is proof positive of its connections with the capitalist world. These concrete worldly interests explain the stubborn resistance of the Catholic church to reforms and to any transformation of present-day capitalist society. They are also the real motive of the struggle waged by the Vatican against democracy and against the advance of the popular forces.
The Vatican masks its struggle against democracy with the slogan of anti-Communism and the “struggle for peace”. But no amount of camouflage can conceal the real aim of this struggle, the desire to smash the democratic forces, defeat the popular movement, facilitate the return to power of the reactionary, fascist regimes, accelerate the establishment in Europe of a bloc of American satellites, who would be willing toots for provocations against the Soviet Union and the new democracies.
Commenting on the danger of a new world war the “France Catholique” magazine stated:
“To avoid this conflict it is necessary, above all, to transform Europe into an economic unit and to bring it into an international economic organisation.”
The Vatican and the entire church hierarchy gave wholehearted support to the “Marshall Plan” and to similar US imperialist schemes for enslaving Europe and provoking war.
Ordinary Catholics do not, and cannot, support this policy of the princes of the Catholic church who are hand in glove with big capital and the ruling clique of American imperialists. Exploited and oppressed by capitalism, the Catholic workers, who bore the brunt of sacrifices and hardships of war, and who were active fighters for freedom and national independence, are conscious of the need to unite with all working people in the united front of peace and democracy. Today, more than ever before, they are conscious that they must struggle for liberation from capitalist bondage and exploitation. They know that the only way they can prevent a return of the fascist past, is by fighting for the new socialist society.