ROME LETTER
313
Jesuit Father Lombardi, also known as "The Flying Jesuit" and "God's
Microphone." Father Lombardi answered Senator Spano that he was
ready to take up the challenge, but that, since he was well aware of
the way Communists conduct their public arguments, the rhetorical
bout would have to take place on his own conditions, namely in a closed
space, before forty people, half of them picked by himself and half by
Senator Spano; he would introduce the subject (Christianity vs. Com–
munism) with a thirty minute talk; Senator Spano would have thirty
minutes to answer
him
and Father Lombardi would have the right to
retort for fifteen minutes. The meeting would be broadcast over the
national network. At this point, the Stalinist must have known that he
had already been forced into an inferior position. First of all, he had
explicitly conceded the priest's contemptuous contention that a Com–
munist didn't deserve the honor of a free debate; secondly, he had hoped
for a mass meeting with fiery appeals to the misery of the masses, and
now the whole show had become the rhetorical equivalent of one of
those duels that are still the fashion in Italy, in which neither adversary
can possibly get hurt and the only question is which of the two looks
more foolish. But it was too late to withdraw, and moreover Senator
Spano was not a little flattered by the thought of crossing ideological
swords with the famous Jesuit. Newspaper pictures of the event showed
a beamingly self conscious Spano at the side of a formal and impassive
Lombardi. Except for the priest's attire, the scene looked very much
like the meeting of the silly little Social Democrat and the perfect
Stalinist.
As for the argument itself, it went like this: Father Lombardi said
that the Communists are materialistic and believe in evolution, and that
everything good in Communist theory comes from Christianity. To which
Spano retorted that he didn't mind descending from a monkey; that
Communism does not oppose true Christianity but reactionary clerical–
ism, and that the Church today is not faithful to the Gospel. At one mo–
ment, turning to Lombardi, the senator said:
«Your
teacher Jesus .... "
then quickly corrected himself:
«Our
teacher Jesus, I mean.... " And
so on and so forth. The game was dull, its outcome a stalemate. Right
after the end, however, Father Lombardi had a stroke of Jesuitical
genius: drawing his brother-in-Christ Spano to his bosom, he kissed him
on both cheeks and with that carried the day. Of those kisses the Sen–
ator's cheeks "will ne'er be clean."
Nicola Chiaromonte
