THE JESUIT
straight answers that you can retain their confidence."
"And what is your answer?" I asked.
"They must have told you that I am a Fascist," he said with
a boyish giggle. "Of course I am not. I am a Jesuit. Moreover, the
only restoration I care for, is the restoration of society to Christ. But,
if we want to be serious and not just cry wolf after the wolf is dead,
as people are doing today, we have to recognize that Fascism, insofar
as it realized that the social problem is first of all a problem of
authority, and that there can be no authority without Catholicism,
was a step in the right direction, and a most important one at that.
The trouble was that, like so many Italians, Mussolini was an amateur.
He thought it possible for a political leader of our time to be a
Catholic only up to a certain point. In this he was no better than
so many liberal politicians. Italy is now paying for his mistake. But
the fact is, that if Fascism has been defeated,
it
has by no means
been proved wrong. We knew that the moment we became a con–
quered people.
If
I were a cardinal I would be prudent. But I am a
parish priest, and what can I, in
all
conscience, tell people who come
to me for advice, except that the principle which was beginning to
give the Italian nation a true Catholic shape must not be given up?
What comforts me is that the younger generation seems to be aware
of this duty."
All this was asserted with passion, as if it were an absolutely
personal belief. But it wasn't. In fact, another Jesuit, Father Lom–
bardi, the most popular orator in Italy after Togliatti, was saying
very much the same thing, in public places as well as over the radio. He
introduced himself at the radio with the words: "Jesus is at the
microphone. Jesus wants to speak to you. Listen to Jesus" (the cover
of the volume in which his radio talks have been collected bears a
reproduction of the head of Christ from
Raphael'~
"Transfiguration"
with the addition of a neatly drawn microphone in the right corner).
As
for Father Lombardi's political message, it was quite straight.
He tried to give heart to the distressed Italians by pointing out that
"a newly reorganized life might be better than the one we have been
forced to renounce."
Italy, he said, still has the greatest possessions
of all, Rome and the Pope. Italy's greatest glories have all been
Christian and Catholic. The nation can be reborn in spite of the
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