Pacelli reports to Gasparri about a “truly deplorable” leak by the Reich Government to the “Jewish-Democratic” newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung about negotiations for a Reich-Vatican Concordat - Dec. 15, 1921
Source: Timeline
Dec. 15, 1921 Pacelli reports to Gasparri about a “truly deplorable” leak by the Reich Government to the “Jewish-Democratic” newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung about negotiations for a Reich-Vatican Concordat.
Italian original at www.Pacelli-Edition.de, Document No. 1168 and English translationEnglish translation of article “Concordat Plans” in Frankfurter Zeitung
Also on Dec. 15th, Cardinal Faulhaber visits Bavarian Government authorities to press for a new Bavarian-Vatican Concordat. Schmidt, p.204.
Dec. 15, 1921 Pacelli to Gasparri:
Pacelli to Gasparri, re: Article in the Frankfurter Zeitung about the proposed Reich Concordat
Most Reverend Eminence,
The Jewish-Democratic newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung has published, in its issue number 917 of the 10th of this month, an article about the proposed Reich Concordat, which I dutifully transmit herewith to your Most Reverend Eminence together with its Italian translation. In it is found reproduced in rather precise form (apart from several inaccuracies) the principal points of the proposal for the future Reich Concordat presented by me to Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Wirth with the Note of this November 15 (cf. Report No. 22353 of the 16th). It is truly deplorable that, while in Bavaria during the past almost two years, nothing of the Holy See’s proposals has leaked out to the public papers, those on the other hand given to the Berlin Government, where all sense of discretion seems to be lost, have appeared in the press, in their most important parts, just twenty-five days after being presented, notwithstanding that the aforesaid Note had explicitly requested, in the very interest of good progress for the negotiations, the observance of the strictest secrecy. I did not fail, therefore, to take action against these inopportune leaks, by remonstrating strongly to the Reich’s representative in Munich, Count von Zech, and I leave it to Your Eminence to judge whether it would be most useful to have a word about this also with the German Ambassador.
As to the substance, the article in question reveals the hostile disposition of the Democratic Party toward a Concordat favorable to the rights of the Church, especially in the schools question, and shows the most serious difficulties that stand in the way of concluding such a Concordat. It is superfluous, then, to point out how false and unjust are the attacks contained in the article itself. It is enough here to note that the proposal in question was presented after insistent requests, oral and written, of the Chancellor (above-cited Report), and how, meanwhile, on the one hand, it was indeed sought to maintain the said points as to the limits of the Reich Constitution, and on the other hand, in the above-mentioned Note there was an express declaration that the Holy See, motivated by a sincere desire to reach agreement, is ready to take under serious and benevolent consideration future proposals for modifications and additions, which could be made by the Reich Government.
In conclusion, humbly bowing to kiss the Sacred Purple, with sentiments of most profound veneration, I have the honor to prove myself
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s
Most Humble, Most Devoted, Most Obliged Servant,
+Eugenio Pacelli, Archbishop of Sardis
Apostolic Nuncio
Source: Historical Archive of the Secretariat of State (Holy See), Section for Relations with States, Vatican Secret Archives, AA.EE.SS., Germania, 1920-1921, pos. 1728, fasc. 906, fol. 32r-33r, reprinted at www.Pacelli-Edition.de, Document No. 1168.
Frankfurter Zeitung, Dec. 10, 1921, page one:
“Concordat Plans”
A South German politician writes us:
For some time, rumors about the Concordat that the Bavarian Government intends to conclude with the Vatican have been making their way into print. The desire is there in both parties; nonetheless the difficult negotiations do not appear as yet to have come to a conclusion; they are being carefully kept secret. For all that, the plan of the Concordat is not hidden from Bavarian politicians. It is probably far less well known that the Curia is making efforts to achieve a Concordat with the German Reich as well. The opportunity to pave the way for this appeared really quite favorable when the Center Party filled the highest governmental positions not only in the Reich, but also in Prussia in the person of Herr Stegerwald. Just as in the Bavarian Concordat, decisive importance is being placed upon the school issue by Papal diplomacy for the Reich Concordat. In the drafts, a proposal has been put forward to make religious instruction a part of the curriculum in all middle schools and high schools, without, however, the governmental right of supervision provided in Art. 149 of the Constitution. The government will indeed appoint the religion teachers, but only those who have been approved by the Bishops, and the teachers are subject to dismissal if the Diocesan authorities are not satisfied with them. Also in elementary schools, religious instruction would have to be regulated in cooperation with ecclesiastical authorities. To the Church would be confided not only the supervision of religious instruction, but also the designation of the textbooks used in it. In places whose Catholic population is few in numbers, Catholic elementary schools would have to be built upon a request by parents. It is a natural consequence of the foregoing, and it is further demanded, that the government shall provide for sufficient numbers of educational institutes to train male and female Catholic teachers, institutes that are for the sole purpose of imparting religious instruction. Members of orders and religious congregations would be subject to the same stipulations as lay persons for admission to teaching positions. Upon these religious corporations would also be conferred the right to establish private schools with the same range of privileges that the government schools have. Finally, for the formation of their own clergy, the Church demands the ability to establish philosophical and theological teaching institutions under its control, while in the Catholic theological faculties of the state universities, the only instructors allowed are those who are and remain in possession of a canonical certification. In Article 138 of the Reich Constitution, it is declared that government obligations to religious societies pursuant to laws, treaties or particular titles of right will be discharged by state legislation in accordance with principles that are established by the Reich. The Vatican would now like to obtain a requirement that an agreement with the Pope must precede the confirming decree pursuant to this Article as to the determinative Reich and state legislation. The costs that grow out of this expansion of religious instruction at all levels obviously have to be borne by the government.
The arrangements about schools do not exhaust the dimensions of the intended Concordat. A proposal to again have the Church ceremony before the civil ceremony for Catholic marriages is being considered. A demand has also been made to institute for Church officials the same status and prerogatives as for public officials, without requiring them to take an official oath to the state. But the main issue remains the schools, and Vatican diplomacy has responded to indications that the school provisions would be very difficult to put through, by answering that the Vatican would rather do without a Concordat than give up on these provisions. Apparently there is self-deception in the Curia about the political implications of the aforesaid demands and the impression that they inevitably make upon the non-Catholic circles of Germany. If these demands were to be pressed with all earnestness, then there would be no hiding that the currently existing governing coalition would be seriously endangered. Finally it must be emphasized that the Curia wishes to hold its ground in concluding a Concordat with Bavaria even after concluding a Concordat with the Reich, of which they indeed assume that in all events it will go even further.
If this information had not come from a personality whom we must regard unconditionally as well-informed, we would not have passed it along, because it would be hardly believable that such far-reaching Concordat plans are a reality.
Not that the Curia does not have such wishes; they are naturally inclined in that direction. But it is really not understandable how the Curia can bring them to fulfillment, even if it only has in mind Catholic schools with Catholic students. In this, as in other areas, the fulfillment of these wishes would require changes to the Constitution that would bring about the fall of the governing coalition, and what the Curia could expect to gain from an ensuing bloc of right-wing parties, whose basic coloration would be Protestant, is hard to imagine.
