Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 9, 1915

Papal Diplomacy

An interesting example of papal diplomacy is seen in a letter received from Pope Benedict XV in response to a request made by the Jewish Daily News for an expression of opinion on the question of the persecution of the Jews. The letter reads:—

THE VATICAN, July 22, 1915.

SIR: I hastened to present to the Holy Father the letter transmitted to me by you, No. 18061 D. of the twenty-fifth of June, in which Mr. S. Mason, editor of the New York Jewish Daily News, asked the aid of His Highness in favor of the Jews who are persecuted, and still deprived in some countries of full rights.

The august Pontiff has graciously taken note of this document, and has desired me to request you to write Mr. Mason that the Holy See, as it has always in the past acted according to the dictates of justice in favor of the Jews, intends now also to follow the same path on every propitious occasion that may present itself.

Yours, etc.,

P. CARD. GASPARRI.

A study of the letter (published in the New York Times of August 25) causes one to wonder whether the Pope wishes it understood that Catholic Spain acted “according to the dictates of justice in favor of the Jews” when at the suggestion of Roman Catholic Church dignitaries the Jews were expelled from Spain in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella. The promise of future intention is also ambiguous, for the word propitious may really mean advantageous to the Catholic Church. If the Pope should think the present such a “propitious occasion,” they may expect his aid; otherwise their hope is vain.