Parolin: Totalitarian regimes of past defeated; temptation to 'be like God' remains

By Alessandro Di Bussolo

Although the totalitarian regimes of the past, such as National Socialism, communism, and fascism, now belong to history, “the phenomenon itself does not: it arises from the human temptation to want to ‘be like God,’ to control how humanity lives and thinks, and to impose one’s own ideological convictions on it.”

Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin emphasized this in his opening address on October 28, at the international academic conference in the main hall of the Pontifical Gregorian University. Organized by the Gregorian University and the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, the conference continues until October 29.

Pope Leo XIV and Magnifica humanitas

The harm caused by this human temptation to “want to be like God,” symbolized by the biblical Tower of Babel, was also highlighted by Pope Leo XIV in his encyclical Magnifica humanitas.

As Cardinal Parolin recalled, freedom and democracy do not rest on “rules and procedures alone,” but on “a solid concordance with the facts and a genuine commitment to the good of individuals and society as a whole,” and therefore on “fidelity to the truth.”

Holy See from Pius XI to Saint John Paul II

In his address, the Vatican Secretary of State traced the Holy See’s position toward twentieth-century totalitarian systems during the pontificates from Pius XI to Saint John Paul II.

He examined the emergence of totalitarian regimes “that promised to bring about a social utopia in this world,” fueled by secularism, which “had excluded religion from the public sphere, no longer recognized God as the center and supreme authority of history, and put human beings in his place.”

Totalitarian regimes as “political religions”

“By elevating social class, race, or the state to the altar in God’s place,” the Cardinal recalled, these regimes “sacralized their ideological concepts and created political religions, with their own ‘liturgies,’ prophets, martyrs, and ethical norms that dissolved the human person into an all-encompassing collective.”

Pseudo-religious ideologies such as communism and National Socialism, he stressed, “were irreconcilably opposed to Christianity and unleashed a wave of persecution against the Catholic Church from the outset.”

Seeking “the path of negotiation”

In an effort to protect European Catholics living under these regimes, Pope Pius XI initially chose “the path of negotiation”: with the Soviet Union, Fascist Italy through the Lateran Pacts, and Nazi Germany through the Concordat.

The relationship continued only with Italy, but these were nevertheless fragile relations with partners “subservient to ideologies hostile to Christianity.”

In March 1937, Pius XI therefore issued three encyclical letters “that condemned National Socialism, communism, and the anti-Catholic liberal-socialist regime in Mexico.”

According to Cardinal Parolin, the Pope clearly expressed “that all these heretical deviations stemmed from the same materialism which, by denying God, claimed to bring a new salvation to the world through revolutionary human means.”

Pius XII and Summi Pontificatus

His successor, Pius XII, maintained this fundamental outlook. In his first encyclical, Summi Pontificatus, issued at the outbreak of the Second World War, he denounced the ultimate roots of the conflict as lying “in society’s departure from the teaching of Christ, which had once given Europe spiritual cohesion, in the neglect of natural law, and in the rejection of a universal standard of morality.”

Only a return to God “and to an order centered on Christian values” could restore humanity to genuine peace founded on justice and equity.

Pacelli’s vision for the postwar world

After attempts to mediate peace between the warring parties had failed, Pope Pius XII launched “a diplomacy of charity on an unprecedented scale,” Cardinal Parolin recalled, to assist persecuted and needy people “of every background.”

He also developed “a blueprint for the postwar world that would ensure a just and lasting peace, rooted in Christian inspiration and based on international solidarity and respect for the dignity and natural rights of individuals and nations, including small nations and those that had been defeated.”

He condemned the unspeakable crimes of the war, but did so in a way “that would not provoke even greater persecution.”

Failed efforts to reach an agreement with “people’s democracies”

Cardinal Parolin stressed that Pius XII’s resolute anti-communism did not prevent him, after the war, from seeking an agreement with the “people’s democracies” to ease the suffering of persecuted Catholics.

He sought to negotiate with Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland. It was the communist regimes, however, that broke off all dialogue, including through the conviction of Cardinal József Mindszenty in Hungary and the launch of a schismatic “Catholic Action” in Czechoslovakia.

This led to the decrees of excommunication issued between 1949 and 1951, through which he condemned any collaboration with communist ideology, while expressing spiritual and practical solidarity with the “Church of Silence.”

An era of dialogue, from Saint John XXIII to Saint Paul VI

Turning to the subsequent period, Cardinal Parolin explained that “the new approach of ‘dialogue’ with the countries of Eastern Europe in the rigid climate of the Cold War undoubtedly represented one of the most complex aspects of the Holy See’s diplomatic activity during the pontificates of John XXIII and Paul VI.”

Both Popes, but especially Pope Paul VI, pursued dialogue and détente “with the primary aim of giving the Catholic Church in that part of Europe greater room to live and operate,” aware that communist political regimes would endure for a long time.

The Catholic Church could thus act as a “moral force,” autonomous and independent of the logic of the two blocs.

Vatican Ostpolitik and international détente

This was what came to be known as “Vatican Ostpolitik,” whose primary objective “was religious rather than political, although achieving it required the traditional instruments of politics and diplomacy.”

Cardinal Agostino Casaroli was the chief architect of this dialogue, facing the dilemma of whether to “resist or negotiate.”

In 1965, the Secretary of State recalled, Paul VI said that “the Holy See refrains from raising its legitimate voice of protest and disapproval more frequently and forcefully” in defense of the suffering Church “in countries with atheist and totalitarian regimes,” so as “not to provoke greater evils.”

The Holy See’s policy toward the East, Cardinal Parolin said, “would contribute substantially to international détente.” Despite its limited success, “that choice was right, according to the unanimous judgment of historians.”

Saint John Paul II and the fall of the Wall

Finally, Cardinal Parolin turned to John Paul II, the Pope associated with the “fall of the Wall.” He did not halt negotiations with Eastern Europe but, “convinced of the weakness of communist regimes,” focused his energies “on mobilizing Christian consciences, strengthening the historical and cultural identity of Europe’s peoples, rooted in Christianity, and renewing the unity of the continent, which needed once again to breathe with both lungs.”

His goal was not simply the fall of communism, “but rather the re-Christianization of the peoples of Europe.”

This hope, the Secretary of State concluded, “nevertheless remained unfulfilled.”