JR
This telegram must be                        Rome
closely paraphrased be-
fore being communicated                      Dated March 13, 1940
to anyone.  (SC)                             
                                        Rec'd 1:50 p.m.
 
Secretary of State,
 
     Washington.
 
     178, March 13, 2 p.m. (SECTION TWO)
 
     (The Vatican shares the view that if Hitlerism falls Mussolini will fall too unless Mussolini
makes some compromise with the Allies to save himself which is considered by the Vatican
authorities to be unlikely at the present time).
     The Holy Father when he found an opportunity to reply to Ribbentrop referred to the
condition of the Catholic Church in Germany and the condition of the Polish people.  Ribbentrop
urged upon the Pope that his Government had granted large sums of money and subsidies in
Germany to the churches including the Catholic and that the churches are allowed to be open.  He
insisted that the church had no right to concern itself with politics, to which the Pope replied that
the closing of the churches and schools and the persecution of priests was not a political but a
church matter.  Ribbentrop's sole allegation against the church was its participation in politics.
     In regard to Poland the Pope again asked that an apostolic visitor be permitted to enter
Poland for the