POPE BENEDICT
G.1.1.14 FO 371/5244 Register No E 7910/4164/44 File note of 15 July 1920.
199G.1.1.14 FO 371/5244 Register No. E 7910/4164/44 Despatch No. 82 of 3 July 1920 from Count de
Salis to the British Foreign Office and attaching the Pro-Memoria from Monsignor Cerretti.
200G.1.3.11 FO 380/28 Despatch No. 154 of 6 August 1920 from Sir Eric Phipps, for the British Foreign
Secretary, to Count de Salis, indicating that the British Government wished to dispel any suggestion of a continuance of the French protectorate.
3.19. THE HOLY SEE APPOINTS MONSIGNOR BARLASSINA AS LATIN
PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM
Despite British opposition, Monsignor Luigi Barlassina was appointed as Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem by Pope Benedict XV at the Consistory held on 8 March 1920 in the Vatican. The evidence shows that he was an intelligent, articulate, energetic and outgoing man who spoke English with Italian gusto and was able to type his own correspondence. He appears to have had the capacity to irritate English people, especially officials, very greatly. One British official, Sir Harry Luke, said that Barlassina had “three bugbears”, “Protestantism, Zionism and Freemasonry”.201 He was also a man who took himself immensely seriously in his capacity as a prelate of the Catholic Church and who spoke his own mind freely, ever-confident that he had the best interests of the Catholic Church at heart and that he had the support of the Supreme Pontiff and the Holy See. Tact was not one of his virtues.202 From the moment of his appointment as Latin Patriarch Monsignor Barlassina threw himself energetically into a vigorous round of visits and meetings in Rome and in London held from late April to late May of 1920. The issues which he particularly pursued at this time related to the restitution of sequestered religious properties seized from religious orders during the recent war, especially the German Dormition Abbey and the Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem, on the basis that the Allied Powers had agreed “that all enemy-owned Catholic buildings are henceforth to be considered as belonging to [the] Vatican”.203 In his Audience with Pope Benedict XV on 27 April 1920 Barlassina outlined his plans for renewal of the Catholic Church within the Latin Patriarchate, and his specific project to establish a “work [opera] which would group together the charity and zeal of the faithful throughout the world to protect and promote Catholic interests in the Holy Land”, a work which the new Latin Patriarch
201
Wasserstein, 94, citing Sir Harry Luke in Cities and Men, (London, 1953-1956), Volume 2, 208.
202
In early October of 1920 the Italian Consul-General in Jerusalem, Alberto Tuozzi, described Monsignor Barlassina as “a man of great initiative and great dignity but [who] has an exaggerated estimation of the importance of his role and person. Today he is engaged in the mission of defending Catholics and fighting Zionism, a program which no one can criticize, but which must be implemented with tact, that the Patriarch wholly lacks”, see Minerbi, 142, citing Tuozzi to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Rome), Top Secret, October 4, 1920, no.1103/176, ASME file 1457.
203
proposed “to entrust … in particular to the Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulchre” whose Grand Master the Pope was.204
In London in late May Monsignor Barlassina paid a call on Sir John Tilley at the British Foreign Office in London and handed him a memo setting out his views on the situation of Catholics in the Holy Land. Tilley recorded that:
the Patriarch left this memo with me and indulged in a great flow of language on the subject. He did not impress me as being either a wise or even a sensible man. I assured him he need fear no discrimination against his religion and that his particular complaints would be inquired into. His best plan would be however to discuss them in Jerusalem with the new Administration.205
The document which Monsignor Barlassina gave to Sir John Tilley was entitled
Memorandum of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. The matters which Barlassina raised as being of key concern for the Latin Patriarchate at that time included the retention of “all rights we have possessed from time immemorial, specially in connection with Marriage, Heredity and Appointment of Gardians [sic] to orphan children”; protesting the recent alleged mistreatment of the German Benedictines of the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem; asserting that the authority of the Catholic [sic] patriarch be publicly respected; reminding the British Government of the moderation the Latin Patriarchate had obtained from its own members in Palestine towards the new British administration; committing the Latin Patriarchate to the teaching of English in its schools and seminary; expressing the hope that in a few years there would be some English priests within the diocese as part of a general promotion of good relations between the Patriarchate and the new British administration; and seeking assurances that “there will be no interference with
204
Le Patriarcat Latin de Jerusalem, 10. By a motu proprio of 3 July 1920 Pope Benedict XV approved the establishment of this Work for the Preservation of the Faith in Palestine, entrusting its
advancement to the individual Chapters of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre throughout the world, K. La Palestine, May 1922, No. 5, 76-77 and motu proprio No. B-7903 of 3 July 1920 signed by Cardinal Gasparri for Pope Benedict XV.
205G.1.1.9 FO 371/5191 Registry Number E5376/588/44, Rights of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, File
religious customs or holy places or any curtailment whatever of religious liberty subject only to the maintenance of public order and security”.206
Despite the condescending and disparaging nature of Sir John Tilley’s File Note Monsignor Barlassina’s Memorandum is striking for its fluency in English, apparently written by the new Latin Patriarch himself, and for its remarkably conciliatory tone, clearly seeking to establish good relations with the new British administration in Palestine while at the same time frankly asserting the historic rights of the Latin Patriarchate in the light of the guarantees contained in the Balfour Declaration as to the existing rights and liberties of peoples and religions in Palestine. This Memorandum was forwarded to Sir Herbert Samuel for his information on 1 June 1920 and he asked to retain it so that offending religious sensibilities might be avoided and so that the new administration could be aware of “the matters to which the Catholic Community is attaching special importance”.207 What particularly appears to stand out from this Memorandum, apart from the very moderation and conciliatory nature of its overall tone, is that it makes no reference whatsoever to the questions of Zionism or the proposed national home for Jews in Palestine. The incoming Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem was primarily concerned to assert long- established Catholic rights, including in respect of the Holy Places, and the status of his position in Palestine where Britain now ruled as Mandatory Power. This is entirely consistent with the maintenance of the two long-established policies of the Holy See towards the Holy Land, the protection of the Christian Holy Places and the promotion of the rights and interests of the indigenous Catholic community of Palestine.
3.20. MONSIGNOR BARLASSINA AND HIGH COMMISSIONER SAMUEL
TAKE UP THEIR POSITIONS IN JERUSALEM IN JULY 1920
Having both now had Audiences in Rome with Pope Benedict XV the new British High Commissioner for Palestine and the new Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem then
206
G.1.1.9 FO 371/5191 Memorandum of the Patriarch of Jerusalem filed at Registry Number
E5376/588/44, and see also G.1.3.10 FO 380/27.
207G.1.1.9 FO 371/5191 Letter of 2 June 1920 from Sir Herbert Samuel to Sir John Tilley, Registry
proceeded to Jerusalem for their formal installations in their respective offices. Sir Herbert Samuel’s solemn presentation took place at the Augusta Viktoria Palace on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem on 7 July 1920, the Pro-Vicar of the Latin Patriarchate, the Austrian Monsignor Fellinger, representing the Catholic Church and being granted precedence over the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, a sign that the Status Quo for such matters from Ottoman times might be observed under the new British administration.208 On Thursday 15 July 1920 Monsignor Barlassina made his formal Solemn Entry into Jerusalem, being welcomed by Mr Ronald Storrs, the District Governor of Jerusalem, on behalf of the new British High Commissioner.209 Barlassina processed on foot through the Old City, entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where he kissed the Stone of Unction and heard his appointment by Pope Benedict proclaimed to the populace.210
In his first Pastoral Letter to his diocese, issued on 20 July 1920, Monsignor Barlassina acknowledged that “we are all pre-occupied about the transformation which, it is said, is contemplated in Palestine. This is the subject of our most serious anxiety, the subject of our consideration”, pointing out that the American King-Crane Commission report of the previous year had recommended that Palestine should “be internationalized rather than to be some servant of Sionism [sic]”.211 Barlassina went on to outline his visit to the new British High Commissioner, who had “received Us
208
A.13. Latin Patriarchate Archives LB 1.6-1.3 Barlassina 2 1920-1940, Dossier (B-7), Appendix J, Document X. In fact, when a draft Order of Precedence for Palestine was submitted to Lord Curzon for approval in October 1920, the British Foreign Minister personally amended it, deleting the
precedence accorded to the Latin Patriarch under the status quo and replacing it with a shared equality between the Latin, Greek and Armenian Patriarchs whose seniority would be determined by the length of their respective tenures as Patriarchs of Jersualem, see G.1.1.6 FO 371/5123 Despatch No. 69 No. C.S.243 of 8 October 1920 from Mr W.Deedes to the British Foreign Secretary with
attached draft Order of Precedence, and copy letter of 17 November 1920 from Sir John Tilley revising the draft Order.
209
A.12. Latin Patriarchate Archives LB 1.6-1.3 S.B.L. Barlassina Giubileo Episcopale/Sacer d’Ordo, Corriere di Napoli 31 July/1 August 1920; Letter from the District Governor of Jerusalem to Monsignor Fellinger of 15 July 1920. See Apendix 5 for biography of Storrs.
210
A.12. ibid.
211
G.1.1.6 FO 371/5123 copy of Pastoral Letter of Monsignor Barlassina attached to Despatch No. 49