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In June 1938, after his attempts at diplomacy with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy had failed, Pope Pius XI ordered an American Jesuit, Father John LaFarge, to compose an encyclical denouncing racism and anti-Semitism. The result was a draft called Humani Generis Unitas (The Unity of the Human Race), which LaFarge produced with the help of two other priests. But after Pope Pius XI died early in 1939, his successor, Pius XII, stood by in silence as Nazi Germany began to carry out its Final Solution. The unpublished encyclical was buried in a secret archive, its three authors bound by a vow of silence. For decades Vatican scholars either minimized the importance of Humani Generis Unitas or questioned the document's very existence - until Thomas Breslin, a Jesuit seminarian, uncovered the manuscript in the late sixties. In a disturbing tale of archival intrigue and historical investigation, Georges Passelecq, a Belgian monk, and Bernard Suchecky, a Jewish historian, describe their quest to recover the draft of the encyclical. Undaunted by interminable delays - evasions that only deepened suspicions of Church complicity thirty years after Vatican II - the authors steadfastly pursued their inquiries. Here, published for the first time in English, is the document the Vatican kept hidden for half a century. By examining the circumstances of its creation and the consequences of its suppression, The Hidden Encyclical of Pius XI casts new light on the relations between the Vatican, state-sponsored anti-Semitism, and the Jews during World War II.

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Drafted by american Jesuit Father John LaFarge and buried in the Vatican’s archives since 1938, this engrossing narrative sheds new light on the Church’s failure in the 1930s to alert the world to the nature of fascism and its inherent racism and anti-Semitism. Introduction by Garry Wills. Translated by Stephen Rendall.

CHAPTER ONE

The Search for the Documents

In December 1972 and January 1973 a series of articles in the National Catholic Reporter (Kansas City, Missouri) raised for the first time the issue of an "unpublished encyclical of Pius XI attacking anti-Semitism." Jim Castelli, the periodical's associate editor, had unearthed most of the information relating to this case through meticulous and prudent investigation.

In June 1938, Castelli reported, Pope Pius XI had entrusted an American Jesuit at Fordham University, Father John LaFarge, S.J., with the drafting of preliminary documents for an encyclical condemning racism and anti-Semitism. Surprised, and a bit overwhelmed, LaFarge asked for assistance, and Gustav Gundlach, S.J., a German Jesuit, and Gustave Desbuquois, S.J., a French Jesuit nominated by the superior general of the Society of Jesus, Father Wladimir Ledochowski, S.J., were appointed as his collaborators. A second German Jesuit, Father Heinrich Bacht, S.J., joined them in order to translate their draft into Latin. The four men worked together in Paris throughout the summer, and toward the end of December, LaFarge went to Rome to give Ledochowski not one but three versions of the draft that had been asked for: three texts, then, written respectively in French, English, and German, one of which, at least, was titled Humani Generis Unitas, "The Unity of the Human Race."

And then ... nothing. Pius XI died in February 1939, Cardinal Pacelli succeeded him in March under the name of Pius XII, and the Second World War began in September with the invasion of Poland--without the encyclical's having seen the light of day.

What happened? Jim Castelli offered no definitive answer to that question. But basing his views on the correspondence between LaFarge and Gundlach after LaFarge's return to the United States, he speculated that the superior general of the Jesuits must have deliberately delayed the transmission of the documents as too obviously contradicting his strategic choices, which were more anti-communist than anti-Nazi. When these documents reached Pius XI--if they ever did--the old pope Ratti was already too near his end to be able to transform them into an encyclical. As for Pius XII, who does seem to have been aware of the documents commissioned by his predecessor, he was said to have simply decided to bury them in the "silence of the archives."

How did the National Catholic Reporter manage to break open such a delicate case? On what documentation were its revelations based? "Microfilmed copies of the encyclical and related documents," Castelli explained, had been given to his newspaper by a former Jesuit, Thomas Breslin, who as a seminarian had discovered them in 1967 while cataloguing the papers of John LaFarge. These papers, which had long been kept at the head offices of the Catholic weekly America, had been passed to St. Ignatius of Loyola Seminary in Westchester County, New York, where Breslin was studying philosophy. The closure of the seminary in 1969 interrupted Breslin's work, and the LaFarge papers moved to Woodstock College in Manhattan, where cataloguing was not pursued further for lack of an archivist.

In the course of his investigation, Castelli had taken care to confirm, by means of various independent witnesses, the existence of this documentation. According to the memoirs of Father Walter Abbott, S.J., who had become friends with LaFarge in New York, LaFarge had never said a word about this project to any of his colleagues at Fordham. Shortly before his death in 1963, when persistently questioned on the subject by a former student of Father Gundlach's, he finally admitted, within community confidentiality, that he had taken part in this enterprise, but gave no further details. Abbott added that he had found the English and French copies of the encyclical among LaFarge's papers on the day of LaFarge's death. Another witness, Father Heinrich Bacht, S.J., the translator chosen to prepare a Latin version of the draft encyclical, and in 1972 the last surviving participant in the project, said that "Gundlach wrote the larger part of the draft, whereas LaFarge wrote most of the key sections on racism and anti-Semitism." Finally, the documentation was also attested to in an unqualified manner by Father Robert Graham, S.J., a coworker with LaFarge at America for twenty years and, in 1972, the co-director of the section of the Vatican archives devoted to the Second World War.

The National Catholic Reporter quoted in toto only paragraphs 126 to 130 of the draft encyclical itself, that is, solely the conclusions on racism in general. The paragraphs on anti-Semitism received only succinct mention.

Castelli concluded his vast investigation by remarking, in an accompanying editorial, that "the story of this encyclical draft means that the question of the Vatican's failure to denounce anti-Semitism at the proper time in the prewar period involved not an oversight, but a conscious refusal to work with a document outlined by a pope himself," and that this inevitably raised "many questions about the internal workings of the Vatican during World War II." Moreover, "an earlier, hard-hitting statement on racism might have meant that we would have less racially motivated strife in the U.S. today."

In a long scholarly article, Gordon Zahn, a specialist on the social encyclicals, judged the rediscovered encyclical "perhaps the strongest Catholic statement on this moral evil" of anti-Semitism. As such, "it resurrects the 'Hochhuth problem' in a new context, for now it is no longer a matter of Pius XII's failure to protest the systematic elimination of the Jews, but rather his apparent refusal to go along with the intention of his revered predecessor and sponsor. Add to this the fact that Pius XI would have protested early in the Nazi program while Pius XII maintained public silence long after it had escalated into the full horror of the Final Solution, and what once seemed a needless attack upon the memory of a beloved leader becomes a very real problem calling for serious study and reflection."

In addition, Zahn writes, "the newly 'discovered' encyclical adds a new dimension to the problem: It suggests that Pius XII, though no anti-Semite himself, did not share his predecessor's intensity of opposition to that moral evil and, as a consequence, did not place it as high in the order of priority in making his policy calculations as Piux XI probably would have. This, in turn, might reflect a personality difference between the two, Pius XII being less inclined to take a controversial stand and distancing himself from what he may have regarded as rash impulsiveness on the part of the other."

The Vatican's Clarification

The information published by the National Catholic Reporter immediately attracted the attention of several leading periodicals, but did not unleash a wave of polemics comparable to the one that had accompanied the production of Rolf Hochhuth's play The Deputy a dozen years earlier. Did this moderate response result from the celerity with which the Vatican reacted?

On 5 April 1973 the Osservatore romano published a clarification signed by one of the officials of the Vatican archives, Father Burkhart Schneider. Seizing the opportunity afforded by the publication of a new volume in the vast corpus entitled Acts and Documents of the Holy See Relative to the Second World War, Father Schneider explained, under the title "An Encyclical Manque," that in this new volume, which also included documents belonging to the end of Pius XI's pontificate, "a document is lacking which has recently attracted the attention of the international press. The latter has repeatedly asserted that there has been discovered in the United States an unpublished encyclical of Pius XI on racism whose publication would have had immeasurable consequences at the time. In fact, during the summer of 1938, the Jesuit Fathers Desbuquois, Gundlach, and LaFarge began composing, in Paris, on the pope's orders, a document that would have set forth Christian doctrine on the unity of the human race (the title was to be Unitas Humani Generis), in opposition to all racist ideologies. The result was a work of more than 100 very dense pages written in a speculative, theoretical, and laborious style that more resembled Gundlach's manner of thinking than LaFarge's. Three versions exist (French, English, and German), which are not always coherent or identical with each other. These texts, transmitted to Pius XI by the then Superior General of the Society of Jesus, W. Ledochowski, at the end of 1938 or the beginning of 1939, cannot be considered a true pontifical document, but at most the draft, requiring many revisions and redevelopments, of a future encyclical. The concrete situation at the time, the health of the pontiff, who died a few weeks later, and his wish to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Concordat (the Conciliazione), caused the texts prepared, along with many others on different themes, to end up in the silence of the archives. Part of their content can easily be discovered in Pius XII's documents, beginning with the encyclical Summi Pontificatus, and this is explained by the fact that Pius XII later made use of the services of Father Gundlach for documents, speeches and messages devoted to social and political problems. Since it is therefore a private work, even though it is preparatory to a possible document of the Holy See, it has not been taken into consideration for the present edition."

Was this clarification judged sufficient? It seems, in any event, to have put a stop to this first effort to publicly exhume the documents in question. One thing had nevertheless been learned: the Vatican archives preserved many documentary traces of this case.

"Perhaps this is not the right moment"

One of the present authors, Georges Passelecq, a monk at the Benedictine abbey of Maredsous in Belgium, learned of the articles in the National Catholic Reporter shortly after they appeared, and decided to undertake his own investigation. As secretary since 1969 of the Belgian National Catholic Commission on Relations with the Jewish World, he had reason to believe that his hope of achieving his goal was not wholly chimerical. His first reaction was to write, on 11 October 1974, to Father Robert Graham, in Rome:

   Reverend Father,

      Some time ago Father Roger Braun, S.J., who edits the 
   journal Rencontre--Chretiens et Juifs in Paris, and myself were 
   trying to collect some documentation concerning the encyclical on 
   racism that was to be published by Pius XI, but which his rather 
   sudden death caused to be placed among the papers of the 
   Vatican. Recently Father Braun, who is not in good health, asked 
   me again to pursue this matter, and he suggested I write to you, 
   for he says that he learned from you yourself that you possess a 
   certain number of interesting documents on this important 
   question.

      Might I be permitted to appeal to you, and ask whether these 
   documents could possibly be made available to us, with a view to 
   the eventual publication in Rencontre of an article on this subject?
   
      If necessary, I would be willing to travel to Rome.
   
      I know something about the question. Through American 
   publications, I have already collected a good deal of information, 
   particularly concerning Father LaFarge (whom I met personally in New 
   York in 1950, if I remember correctly).
   
      I would be extremely thankful for anything you could do to help us in 
   this area, and I beg you to consider me, Reverend Father, your 
   fraternally devoted and grateful, Georges Passelecq

Here is Father Graham's reply, dated Rome, 21 October:

   
   Dear Reverend Father,
   
      I have received your letter of 11 October and I hasten to tell you 
   that I do not have the text of the encyclical Generis Humani Unitas. 
   Around 1959, I sent a photocopy to Action populaire in care of Father 
   Bosc, asking his advice concerning the possibility of publishing it. 
   The reply was that as a provisional document, it was not of interest as a 
   whole, although certain parts might be publishable. Then I heard 
   nothing more. Nothing, that is, until Father Edward Stanton, a Jesuit in 
   Boston, went to work. He had written a doctoral dissertation (1972) in 
   Ottawa, Canada. To my shame, I cannot give you its title, or tell you 
   whether the dissertation was brought out by a publishing house. In any 
   case, I have not seen the final text.[...]
   
      The documentation of which Father Braun speaks [...] consists of 
   my own notes taken in New York after my conversations with him or 
   others that I received from Father Abbott (who is in this house, but is 
   gone on vacation). At a certain time I wrote up an account of these, but 
   it remains unfinished. It is no more than an account, and not a 
   discussion. I inform you that just before his death Father LaFarge--a 
   great soul to whom I owe a great deal--had sent an article on racism to 
   the New Catholic Encyclopedia. For that purpose he had dug the old 
   "encyclical" out of his closet. 
   
      I wonder what value ought to be attached to the document, which 
   was intended for the pope, to be sure, but which represents in itself only 
   what Father LaFarge and Father Gundlach (and perhaps Father 
   Desbuquois) thought at the time. The German Jesuits here believe they 
   can discern Gundlach's hand everywhere in the document, a possibility I 
   do not exclude, even though the pope's mandate was entrusted to 
   Father LaFarge. In order to prepare a document for Pius XI they would 
   have had to consult, of course, the many statements on racism made by 
   the pope during the preceding months and years.--Why don't you 
   write a study on these documents?
   
      Could you let me know if I can help you in any other way? For I am 
   eager that my master and benefactor "Uncle John" be duly recognized 
   as a person who was early on sensitive to the needs of our time.
   
      I am currently rereading some Catholic works on the Church and the 
   Jews. I find it curious that no one mentions the audience Pius XII 
   granted Jules Isaac, which nevertheless had one consequence about 
   which Isaac said he was very happy. It had to do with nongenuflection 
   during Holy Week. Today this amounts to little, no doubt. But then it 
   was all the greater a gesture because it was the first.

      May God bless you in your apostolic love!
   
      I beg you, Reverend Father, to accept my respectful good 
   wishes.

Since Father Graham's reply seemed evasive, Passelecq asked Father Ambroise Watelet, O.S.B., also a Benedictine at Maredsous, who was then rector of the St. Anselm Pontifical College in Rome, to try again. It was no use. On 18 September 1976, Father Watelet wrote Passelecq from Rome:

   
   My dear Father,
   
      I have just had an hourlong interview with the charming Father 
   Graham, S.J. I set forth your considerations. He immediately told 
   me that he feared you had arrived too late; in fact, a certain Father Nota, 
   a Dutch Jesuit, published at the beginning of the year a study on this 
   business of the draft encyclical. You will find this study in the 
   Internationale Katholische Zeitschrift, no. 2, 1976. Father Nota had 
   access to a German text of the draft encyclical, and gave an analytical 
   summary of it.
   
      Father Graham has already indicated in his letter of 21 October 1974 
   that a photocopy of the French text must be at the offices of Action 
   populaire in Paris (Father Bosc); Graham himself no longer has the text.
   
      He emphasized two points:
   
      1. This draft encyclical, which Pius XI personally entrusted to Father 
   LaFarge (to the surprise of Father General Ledochowski), was no more 
   than a first draft which does not necessarily represent Pius XI's thought. 
   The document reached the Vatican, but did Pius XI see it? 
   
      2. The draft encyclical is not primarily concerned with the Jews, but 
   rather with the general problem of racism.
   
      That said, there is a dossier on this matter in the Vatican archives, 
   but it is still in the secret part of the archives, and thus not accessible 
   through the ordinary avenues.
   
      Father Graham added that the central ideas in the encyclical were 
   adopted by Pius XII, who published the document Summi Pontificatus 
   in October 1939. 
   
      Father LaFarge's ideas--as Father Graham wrote to you--were 
   expressed in his article on racism in the New Catholic Encyclopedia.
   
      A final consideration: Father Graham thinks that so far as this draft 
   encyclical is concerned, the Vatican would probably not wish to draw 
   attention to the publications on the Jews at this moment of tension in 
   the Near East.
   
      In conclusion, Father Graham advises you first to look into Father 
   Nota's recent article; you will see whether there is still anything new and 
   interesting to say. He himself does not think he can help you 
   very much; it might be worthwhile to contact Father Nota in Holland 
   and Father Bosc in Paris.
   
      He did not tell me that it would be impossible to gain access to 
   the dossier in the Vatican archives, but perhaps this is not the right 
   moment. I can inquire if you wish.
   
      There you have, dear Father Georges, the information I have 
   been able to collect for you. Let me know if you want to know 
   more.

Father Graham's "advice" was sufficiently imperative that Passelecq pursued the matter no further. He nevertheless resumed his research thirteen years later, after meeting Bernard Suchecky. In the course of their correspondence, avenues of approach to the problem appeared that circumvented the Vatican archives, which were apparently inaccessible: for example, the archives of the Jesuits at Action populaire in Paris; and the documentation that was probably in the possession of Father Nota, the author of the article mentioned by Father Watelet--and, of course, the microfilm that the National Catholic Reporter said it had acquired.

"God be praised that this draft remained only a draft!"

It was in July 1987, in a doubly polemical context--the dispute concerning the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz, and the beatification of Edith Stein in April 1987--that, looking through various files preserved at the library of the American Jewish Committee in New York, Bernard Suchecky learned about the article by Father Johannes Nota.

Titled "Edith Stein and the Draft for an Encyclical Opposing Racism and Anti-Semitism," this article had appeared in 1975 in the Freiburger Rundbrief, a German periodical on Judeo-Christian relations. In it Father Nota, a Dutch Jesuit who devoted his life to studying and teaching the thought of Edith Stein, discussed the unsuccessful efforts made in 1933 by German philosophers to obtain an audience with Pius XI in order to persuade him to publish an encyclical condemning anti-Semitism. Edith Stein is quoted by Father Nota: "... my efforts in Rome led me to conclude that because of the large number of visitors (during the holy year 1933), I could not obtain a private audience. I could be given only a 'little audience' (that is, as part of a small group). This was useless to me. I therefore gave up my trip and transmitted my request in writing. I know that my letter was sealed when it was given to the Holy Father; some time later, I even received his blessing on me and those near me. But nothing more came of it. Is it impossible that he often thought of this letter afterward? My fears with regard to the future of German Catholics were gradually confirmed in the course of the following years."

In trying to find this letter of Edith Stein's, Father Nota had learned for the first time of Humani Generis Unitas: "As early as 1968, Father Robert Graham, S.J., told me how, while he was doing research for the publication of documents in the Vatican archives, he had found a draft encyclical against racism and anti-Semitism." Subsequently, the articles in the National Catholic Reporter complemented his information and strengthened his desire to learn more. But, Nota writes, "At first, it was extraordinarily difficult to obtain the whole text; the National Catholic Reporter had published only a few extracts from Father John LaFarge's draft. Letters sent to Rome, Paris, Germany, and North America generally elicited a few friendly words, but not the text. They did not have the text, my correspondents said, but they advised me to look in ... where the text was in fact, but it had to remain secret, etc. I nevertheless learned that four versions existed: in English, French, German, and Latin. Fathers Gundlach, LaFarge, and Desbuquois had apparently worked in concert.

"Finally, I received the English version from Father Edward Stanton, S.J., of Boston College--who had just completed a doctoral thesis, as yet unpublished, on Father LaFarge. [...] My efforts to find the other versions have unfortunately been unsuccessful, even though Dr. Johannes Schwarte--who was getting ready to publish his doctoral thesis on Father Gustav Gundlach--was also of enormous help to me. But his 'hands were tied' ... He nonetheless gave me a precious bit of information: 'Up to the passages on racism and anti-Semitism, [the two versions] are on the whole identical.'"

Having obtained the English version, Father Nota proceeded to analyze it. He found the part concerning the unity of the human race "very good," and the one on racism in general "excellent." But the sections on the Jews and anti-Semitism seemed to him so mediocre--the all-too-traditional theology used in them led to positions he described as "deplorable"--that he exclaimed: "If one puts these sentences back into the context of the racist legislation adopted in Germany at that period, one can say today: God be praised that this draft remained only a draft!"

Upon learning of this article and, shortly afterward, of the National Catholic Reporter's investigation, Suchecky began to question American specialists in Judeo-Catholic relations, both Jewish and Christian, academics and non-academics. At that time, he obtained two kinds of replies. Either a lapidary "Never heard of it!" or "It's like the Loch Ness monster. Every time the Church is embarrassed by the `silence of Pius XII,' someone tries to play it down by resorting to this story about the encyclical. The 'good' Pius XI was going to speak out but he didn't have time; the 'unfortunate' Pius XII thought it preferable to do as much as he could to save Jews, but silently. However, no one has ever been able to produce these documents...."

Nevertheless, the Nota and National Catholic Reporter articles were sufficiently precise for Suchecky to find this story about an encyclical credible, and he in turn set out in search of Humani Generis Unitas. First he contacted the editors of National Catholic Reporter. They assured him that the paper's archives contained nothing on this subject, and that the microfilm Jim Castelli had acquired in 1972 "could not be located." A similar approach to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., which has held the LaFarge papers since the closure of Woodstock College in the 1970s, proved equally fruitless, as is shown by this letter from Nicholas B. Scheetz, manuscripts librarian at Georgetown University, dated 21 August 1987:

   Dear Mr. Suchecky,
   
      Thank you for your letter of 7 August concerning an unpublished 
   encyclical of Pope Pius XI, Unitas Humani Generis, preserved in the 
   papers of Reverend John LaFarge, S.J.
   
      I have looked through the two catalogues of the LaFarge papers 
   without finding the slightest reference to the encyclical. I have also 
   checked the cartons that are supposed to contain these materials, 
   unfortunately without success. Moreover, I have asked the person 
   who catalogued the LaFarge collection whether he remembered 
   having seen such materials while he was doing the cataloguing. 
   Alas, he does not remember anything. He added that some time ago, 
   in response to a request similar to yours, he had thoroughly searched 
   this collection without positive results. It therefore seems to me that 
   I can state that the materials you are looking for are not in the 
   LaFarge papers stored at Georgetown.
   
      The newspaper article that you sent me dates from 15 December 
   1972, well before the LaFarge papers were entrusted to us. It is 
   possible that we did not receive everything; it is even possible that 
   the documents relative to the encyclical were never put back in the 
   archives after they were microfilmed for the National Catholic
  
   Reporter. 
   
      I think the best thing to do would be to write to Mr. Jim Castelli, 
   the author of the article, to see if he still has the microfilm. If that is 
   the case, or if you find the missing materials, could you inform me? 
   I would very much like to put copies of these documents back into 
   our LaFarge archives. In any case, I am truly sorry not to be able to 
   provide you with the documents you desire.
   
      With my best wishes for the success of your project...

The next logical step was to locate Father Nota, since he had stated in his article that he possessed at least the English version of the encyclical draft. After some research, Suchecky learned that Father Nota was living in Thorold, Ontario, not far from Niagara Falls. Unannounced, Suchecky visited him on 29 October 1987. The old Dutch Jesuit told him that he could do no more than what had been done for him--that is, he could let Suchecky see a fragment of the English version of Humani Generis Unitas that he had earlier obtained from Father Edward Stanton. The fragment in question, about fifteen typed pages, contained paragraphs 131 to 152 of the document, which dealt specifically with the Jews and anti-Semitism. Suchecky thus had a first piece of the document.

On the occasion of Suchecky's visit, Father Nota gave him a few examples of the "extraordinary difficulties," as he had called them in his article, which he confronted when he tried to obtain the entire document. Following is one such example, and one not without importance for the research undertaken by the authors of the present work. It is a letter from Father Lamalle, S.J., dated Rome, 30 July 1973, asserting that nothing on this subject exists in the general archives of the Jesuits in Rome:

   Dear Father Nota, Pax Christi.
   
      Father Bumpel transmits to me with warm recommendation a 
   twofold request from you: 1) the text of the encyclical planned but 
   not published by Pius XI, Humani Generis Unitas, against racism,
   included in part in Pius XII's encyclical Summi Pontificatus; 2) the 
   confirmation or disconfirmation of the claim that Father Ledochowski tried 
   to delay publication in order to avoid further irritating the German 
   government.
   
      I greatly regret that I cannot directly satisfy you in this twofold request. 
   First, because the text of this planned encyclical is certainly not in our 
   archives. I believe I know them well enough to be able to say that. Second, 
   as for the correspondence registered between Father Ledochowski and the 
   Holy See, there is nothing on this subject.
   
      This negative result is in my opinion completely normal. I knew Father 
   Ledochowski well, and I worked for him on several occasions and with him 
   during this period. I always noted his extreme concern not to leave behind 
   writings that might be compromising in the event of persecution, 
   perquisition, etc., especially when it was not a matter of things directly 
   concerning the Society (in matters that concerned us directly, registration 
   might become necessary). Of the little we had, the traces disappeared 
   during the war, when the presence of hostile authorities in Italy and in 
   Rome led us to fear that our papers would be seized. I remember having 
   seen in recent years an article in which this "suppressed" encyclical of Pius 
   XI was mentioned, in some journal, La Civilta cattolica or another. But 
   since it is a subject outside my professional specialty, I kept no notes. You 
   would have a better chance of finding it by addressing yourself to one of 
   the priests involved in publishing Pius XII's documents: Father Burkhart 
   Schneider (Universita Gregoriana, Piazza della Pilotta, 4, 00817 Roma), Father 
   Angelo Martini, or Father Robert Graham (both at La Civilta cattolica, Via 
   di Porta Pinciana 1, 00187 Roma).
   
      [...] sincerely yours in [X.sup.0], Edmond Lamalle, S.J.
   
      N.B.: The limit of accessibility of the documents in our archives, 
   without very special authorization, is the year 1900. But this time, the 
   question does not even arise: deest materia. 

Deest materia. In other words, these materials are not in the Roman archives of the Society of Jesus. Two Doctoral Theses and a Microfilm

Toward the end of the summer of 1987, Georges Passelecq and Bernard Suchecky, who had met in Brussels a year earlier, decided to join forces in order to pursue their search for these documents. Between November 1987 and January 1988, they obtained without excessive difficulties the doctoral theses by Edward Stanton and Johannes Schwarte mentioned by Father Nota in his article.

Edward Stanton's 1972 dissertation, "John LaFarge's Understanding of the Unifying Mission of the Church, Especially in the Area of Race Relations," is based almost exclusively on LaFarge's numerous publications. Only the section devoted to Humani Generis Unitas is based on archival documents. But while Stanton mentions that he "was able to obtain from the LaFarge dossier a French version and two English texts" of the draft encyclical, he does not explain where these dossiers were stored or how he was able to gain access to them.

According to Johannes Schwarte, who defended his dissertation on Gustav Gundlach at the University of Munster in late 1973, and who bases his work on two different documentary sources, the papers of Gustav Gundlach and those of John LaFarge, the German Jesuit should be considered the true author of the draft ordered by Pius XI. But while Schwarte discusses at length the German version, which he regards as the main text, and reveals that it is titled Societatis Unio, "The Union of Society," rather than Humani Generis Unitas, he does not explain where he obtained it. He asserts that "all the documents on the basis of which the history of this composition and the later fate of the draft encyclical Societatis Unio were reconstructed are found in the archives of the Woodstock Jesuit seminary. All these materials were kindly made available to the author, on microfilm, by Th. Breslin."

This claim is confusing--we will see later that the microfilm mentioned in this note does not contain the German version--and perhaps intentionally so. Thus, in the bibliography published at the end of his dissertation, Schwarte inventories numerous unpublished manuscripts by Gundlach, mentioning in most cases the institution where they are preserved. This is not, however, the case for the draft encyclical:

--Gundlach, Gustav (with John LaFarge): draft of an encyclical, Societatis Unio, with an accompanying text by Gundlach on the contents of this encyclical Summer-Fall 1938 (unpublished manuscript).

Finally, in the parts concerned with the composition of the German version of the draft encyclical, Schwarte refers to information, memories, and comments by a certain "Prof. Dr. Anton Rauscher, S.J., Augsburg/Monchengladbach," who is supposed to have personally known Gundlach and seemed to know everything about the document entitled Societatis Unio. But he does not specify that this Dr. Rauscher was none other than the director, since its founding in 1963, of the Katholische Sozialwissenschaftliche Zentralstelle, where Gundlach's papers are stored, including the German version in question.

In 1987, after further, concurrent research, Suchecky was able to locate Thomas Breslin. Breslin, then an associate professor at Florida International University in Miami, immediately sent him a copy of the microfilm which he had also sent to the National Catholic Reporter in 1972 and to Johannes Schwarte in 1973.

According to Breslin, this microfilm reproduced all the documents relative to this case that he had found in the LaFarge papers in 1967: sixty-two different documents.

"We will have to wait a few years"

Thus, thanks to Breslin, late in the fall of 1987 a significant portion of the necessary documentation came into Passelecq's and Suchecky's possession. But a portion only, for they still lacked in particular the German version of the draft encyclical and LaFarge's letters to Gundlach as well as to Father Ledochowski. On the basis of the various bits of information they had gleaned thus far, Passelecq and Suchecky decided that they had little to gain from the LaFarge papers, the Vatican archives, or the Roman archives of the Society of Jesus.

Two avenues remained to be explored, those constituted by Gustave Desbuquois and Gustav Gundlach. The first avenue, which passed through the review Action populaire in Paris, led nowhere. That was also the conclusion Father Paul Droulers, S.J., had reached in the late 1960s when he had attempted to find the draft encyclical in the papers of Father Desbuquois. In a voluminous study on the former editor of Action populaire, Droulers notes, in fact, that "Desbuquois's papers contain nothing on this subject. But if there had been anything there, he surely burned it in 1940, before leaving Vanves because of the [German] invasion."

The avenue by way of Gundlach's papers led to the Katholische Sozialwissenschaftliche Zentralstelle. In November 1988, Suchecky wrote to the director of this institution, the same Father Anton Rauscher whom Schwarte had cited in his dissertation, in order to ask for authorization to consult Gundlach's papers. On 5 December, Father Rauscher replied that "... There is indeed a first draft of an encyclical of Pius XI [written] by Father Gundlach and an American Jesuit. This draft concentrates on society and, in this context, opposes racism and anti-Semitism. After Father Gundlach's death, the Provincial of the Jesuits told me that all the documents should be preserved. If you wish to obtain a copy of this first draft, you should write to Father Provincial Alfons Hofer, S.J., in Koln.[...]"

Passelecq undertook to obtain the permission of the Jesuit provincial for northern Germany, who replied from Koln on 10 January 1989:

   Dear Father Georges,
   
      On the basis of the documents in our archives, it is apparently
   not possible to establish with precision whether the rights to the 
   German version of the encyclical draft Societatis Unio, which was 
   written by Father Gundlach, belong to the province of northern 
   Germany. As far as I am concerned, I see no restriction on free 
   access to the text. I therefore ask you to get in touch with Father 
   Rauscher. If he still has doubts, from a legal point of view it is with 
   him that you must arrive at an agreement.
   
      I hope this information is of help to you in your work, and I
   remain[...]

That being the case, it took several efforts to obtain from Father Rauscher, on 7 July 1989, the following commitment:

   Dear Dr. Suchecky,
   
      Please excuse me for not replying earlier to your letter of 19 May
   1989. Since I have taken advantage of the summer semester to carry 
   on research projects that have often taken me abroad, I have not 
   been able to reply more promptly. 
   
      In August, I shall copy and send to you the draft Societatis Unio
   which is among Father Gundlach's papers[...]

This commitment was nevertheless not fulfilled.

At this point, for various reasons (chiefly professional), Passelecq and Suchecky suspended their research for some time. But in June 1994, Suchecky started over from the beginning. After numerous telephone conversations and a first visit to Monchengladbach--which produced no results, since Father Rauscher "had had unexpectedly to be away"--Passelecq and Suchecky were finally authorized to examine on the premises, on 5 August 1994, the German version of the draft encyclical, but were not allowed to make a copy and take it with them. This document, Father Rauscher told them, belonged to the Vatican, and only the Vatican could authorize its reproduction and use. Consequently, Father Rauscher advised them to address themselves to the appropriate authority in Rome, and in particular at the Jesuit archives.

Passelecq thereupon wrote to Father J. De Cock, S.J., the adjunct archivist of the Society of Jesus's Roman archives, on 22 August 1994:

   Dear Reverend Father,
   
      Father J. M. Schiltz, the rector of the College of St. Paul de 
   Godinne, recommends me to you, so that I am taking the liberty of 
   appealing to your good will.
   
      Our Commission has undertaken the publication of a study on the 
   development of Christian (Protestant and Catholic) teaching 
   regarding Judaism. An important document concerning the period 
   between the two world wars has unfortunately never been published 
   because of Pius XI's death on 10 February 1939. I refer to the draft 
   of an encyclical on racism, entrusted to three Jesuit Fathers, of 
   which there exist three versions, in English, French, and German. 
   We have the first two (along with virtually all the related 
   correspondence). The third version was written by Father Gundlach, 
   and a copy is located at the Katholische Sozialwissenschaftliche 
   Zentralstelle in Monchengladbach.
   
      Following a request I made to the Father Provincial of 
   Westphalia--Northern Germany, we have been given access to this document 
   through the courtesy of Father Anton Rauscher. However, we have 
   not been able to make a photocopy, "the document belonging," 
   according to Father Rauscher, "to the Vatican."
   
      Our interest resides in comparing the three versions, more than 
   three quarters of which correspond word for word, with the goal, 
   not of producing a "critical edition," but rather of determining with 
   precision what doctrine was then intended to be submitted for the 
   pope's signature.
   
      It is because of this documentary lacuna, so to speak, that I am 
   addressing myself to you in the hope that you might be in possession 
   of another copy that does not belong to the Vatican, and which I 
   could perhaps transcribe, if permission to do so were granted me.
   
      On the other hand, we have already in our possession most of the 
   correspondence exchanged among the respective drafters on this 
   subject, and with Father General Ledochowski. We wonder whether 
   possibly I might be allowed to see, under the same conditions, the 
   letters that are missing from our documentation.
   
      That is the purpose of the present request, which I trust is not 
   indiscreet. If it meets with your approval, I shall come to see you 
   during my visit to Rome next October and November.
   
      I have addressed myself to you in all simplicity.
   
      Please accept, Reverend Father, my anticipated gratitude and my 
   fraternal devotion.
   
      Georges Passelecq, O.S.B., Secretary

Here is Father De Cock's reply, dated Rome, 23 September 1994:

   
   Dear Reverend Father,
   
      I am finally responding to your letter of August 22. This delay is 
   due to a prolonged absence on my part and not to research in our 
   archives. 

      This research has in any case not been fruitful, at least so far as 
   the German document written by Father Gundlach is concerned. As 
   you yourself wrote, this document is in Germany. That is, moreover, 
   the way things are done in the Society. On the other hand, I 
   understand why Father Rauscher claims that this text belongs to the 
   Vatican. In general, our archives, and in particular our Roman 
   archives, follow the policies of the Vatican archives regarding 
   access to documents. Currently documents are accessible only up to 
   January 1922, the date of Pope Benedict XV's death.
   
      You will thus understand that the correspondence between 
   Father Ledochowski and Father Gundlach at that period is not yet 
   open to research. I think we will have to wait a few years yet 
   before studying this question in depth.
   
      Regretting that I cannot be of more positive help to you, I beg you 
   accept, very reverend Father, the expression of my fraternal 
   devotion.

      J. De Cock, S.J., archivist

Incidentally, it should be pointed out that at the beginning of October 1994, during a trip to Austria, Suchecky happened to meet, altogether fortuitously, the director of the archives of the Gregorian University, Father Marcel Chappin, S.J. The latter, who was also interested in the history of Humani Generis Unitas, confirmed that the archives he directed for the Gregoriana contained nothing on this subject, all the documents that had belonged to Father Gundlach being preserved in Monchengladbach ...

Having thus arrived at the end of their long investigation, which was partly unsuccessful, the authors of this work can only wonder about the motives that half a century later still lead various ecclesiastical officials to exercise such severe vigilance. Is it simply administrative inertia? Are still-current theological points at stake, even though it would be difficult to say what they might be thirty years after Vatican II? The answers to such questions may perhaps be found precisely in the parts of the file to which the authors were denied access.

Copyright © 1997 Harcourt Brace & Company. All rights reserved.
ISBN: 0-15-100244-4

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In June 1938, three Jesuit priests drafted a work that might or might not have changed European history. Humani Generis Unitas (The Unity of the Human Race) was Pope Pius XI's encyclical to address the encroaching modernity of Fascist Italy and the rising tide of national racism. Unfortunately, Pius's death the next year ended whatever life this manuscript had. Authors Passelecq, a monk, and Suchecky, a historian and film writer, linger too long over the monumental efforts to uncover this manuscript. Much better are their analyses of Catholicism's self-interest inherent in the draft, the "administrative inertia" that squelched its publication, and the painful realization that racism, at least for this encyclical, did not necessarily include anti-Semitism. Recommended for collections seeking depth in studies on anti-Semitism and 20th-century Catholicism. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/97.] Sandra Collins, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Lib. Copyright 1998 Library Journal Reviews

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In a book that is part detective story and part church history, Passelecq, a monk at the Abbey of Maredsous in Belgium, and Suchecky, an historian and filmmaker, recount the story of a papal encyclical hidden from the eyes of the world for 50 years. In 1938, Pope Pius XI, seeking to bring the church into dialogue with the modern world in a way in which his predecessor, Pius X, had refused to do, sought through diplomacy to convince Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy of the political and religious wrongheadedness of their anti-Semitism. When his diplomatic efforts failed, Pius enlisted the efforts of a young American priest, John LaFarge, to compose an encyclical, "to write as if you were the Pope," denouncing anti-Semitism. LaFarge's encyclical, Humani Generis Unitas (The Unity of the Human Race), never saw the light of day however, for Pius XI died the next year, and Pius XII maintained silence while the Nazis implemented their Final Solution. Just what happened to LaFarge's draft of the encyclical is unclear, although LaFarge made some use of his own writing in a book he later published called The Race Question and the Negro (1943). While the reluctance of the church to enter the modern world may have played a significant role in the intrigue surrounding this hidden encyclical, the authors' uncovering of this case and their attempt to bring these matters to light makes for engaging reading. (Sept.) Copyright 1998 Publishers Weekly Reviews