Cardinal Innitzer, Archbishop of Austria, who recently advised Catholics in that country to vote for the union of Germany and Austria in the forthcoming plebiscite, has started something. Subsequently there was a broadcast from Vatican City repudiating the action of the Cardinal while the "Osservatore Romano" published an article stating that action had been taken without consultation with Rome. The matter is cleared up to some extent by the publication in Austrian newspapers. of a letter from Cardinal Innitzer declaring that he and his bishops had acted entirely on their own initiative. In the circumstances the broadcast from Vatican City might have been perfectly justifiable, for it was improper on the part of the Cardinal and his following to have made such a step in a political matter without first securing the approval of the Vatican, which has had its own difficulties with National Socialism.
Amazingly enough it is now stated that the broadcast censuring the Austrian clerics for their advice to the people to vote for Herr Hitler, was made without the knowledge of the Papal Secretariat of State. It is no wonder that the diplomatic corps accredited to the Vatican are bewildered by this astonishing turn of events, for it is generally recognized that it is practically impossible to make an unauthorized broadcast from the Vatican City radio station. Either there has been a sudden change of opinion concerning the broadcast, which might have been inspired by the possibility of an Austrian secession from the Roman Catholic Church, or the miraculous has indeed happened and an unauthorized broadcast has slipped out of the Vatican City. The first alternative seems to be the one offering the only solution of the problem: which has been posed, for the speedy denial of the authenticity of the message is the only means of avoiding political repercussions which were naturally to be expected from the, censure which had thus been administered to the very enthusiastic Cardinal Innitzer. That does not, however, explain away the publication in the "Osservatore Romano" of the statement that the Cardinal had acted without consulting the Holy See before or after the event, though itis believed that all that publication in the organ was designed for was to show that the Austrian bishops had complete authority to make such decisions on their own initiative. If that is indeed the case, then the censure broadcast was entirely wrong, though it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that some very agile attempts are being made to get the cat back into the bag.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.