The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2017

90 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL The Ups and Downs of U.S.-Vatican Relations A Bridge Across the Ocean: The United States and the Holy See Between the Two World Wars Luca Castagna, Washington: The Catho- lic University of America Press, 2014, hardcover, $49.95, 193 pages. Reviewed By John Grondelski U.S.-Holy See relations have certainly had their ups and downs. Several Amer- ican consuls served in the Papal States during the first half of the 19th century, but the Senate prohibited funding for representation there in 1867. Relations were not finally normal- ized until 1984. In the interim, there were only informal contacts or the occa- sional presidential representatives. Castagna’s pioneering book treats bilateral contacts during the 25 years, roughly, between the beginnings of the First and Second World Wars—a histori- cally significant swath of time from the viewpoint of international, domestic and ecclesiastical events. Internationally, the interlude brack- eted by the two world wars saw the rise of totalitarianism in Germany, Italy and Russia. Domestically, America’s rise to world leadership at the dawn of the 20th century led, first, to neutrality and then to an activist Wilsonian crusade to “make the world safe for democracy.” America recoiled from that in its “return to normalcy” and, later, experienced the Great Depression. Ecclesiastically, the Catholic Church in the United States had just ceased being treated as missionary territory but still remained devoid of policy experi- ence or political connections in the public square. Wilsonian progressivism was also coupled with a strong nativ- ist strain: the 28th presi- dent was as anti-Catholic as he was anti-black and anti-immigrant. Residual anti-Catholi- cism would color U.S. poli- tics through the rise of the second Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and the Catholic-baiting of Al Smith in 1928. Catholics found a place in the political sun only within FDR’s New Deal coalition. Against this background, Castagna shows how the Catholic Church, under Pope Benedict XV, hoped to engage with the neutral United States to promote papal peace and arbitration efforts dur- ing World War I. The anti-Catholic president, who had his own visions for world order, regarded the Church as pro-Central Powers and, now bereft of territory following Italian unification, seeking its temporal interests as a non-State at the expense of Allied Italy. As active as the Holy See’s efforts were, they found a deaf ear in the Wilson White House. Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, while doing nothing special to upgrade bilateral contacts, were at least more receptive to the Holy See’s concerns. Herbert Hoover’s election, following a general campaign filled with anti-Cath- olic prejudices, left a bitter taste; but the 1929 Lateran Treaty, establishing the Vatican City State, ended the issue of papal territory. Changes in U.S.-Vatican relations would await two new figures in the 1930s. FDR’s 1932 election, with heavy Catholic ethnic support, allowed him to hawk his New Deal as an embodiment of Catholic social teaching. His growing concerns with European fascism found resonance in Eugenio Pacelli, papal nuncio to Germany and later Vatican Secretary of State. Pacelli’s 1936 visit to Hyde Park paved the way for closer bilateral coop- eration as war approached and, when Pacelli became Pope Pius XII in 1939, provided a personal tie to the White House. The growing contacts led even- tually to the unofficial Myron Taylor mission during the war years. Castagna weaves diplomatic and ecclesiastical sources together into this first book-length treatment of U.S.-Holy See relations during a critical quarter- century of world history. Highly readable , A Bridge Across the Ocean demonstrates how politics, prejudice and pragmatism all shaped our contacts with the papacy between 1914 and 1939. n John M. Grondelski is an FSO who has served in Shanghai, Bern, Warsaw, London and in Washington, D.C., on the Russia Desk. Wilsonian progressivism was also coupled with a strong nativist strain: the 28th president was as anti-Catholic as he was anti-black and anti-immigrant.