CATHOLIC CHURCH AGAINST THE TWENTIETH | THE VATICAN CENTURY by AVRO MANHATTAN ) IN ASIA BY AVRO MANHATTAN cA Ww & CO, LTD. 5 § 6 Johnson's Coun, Fleet Steet, London, E.C.4 WUr0D) THINKER’S FORUM‘THE POPES AND THEIR CHURCH | THE VATICAN IN ASIA ‘Church in the modern world. By Iepnt, AVRO MANHATTAN THE PAPACY IN POLITICS ‘TO-DAYTHE THINKER'S FORUM I belo 69 U0 pit) TURKEY: THE MODERN MIRACLE by E,W. Fs Toa AL SCLENCE: CUKSR OR BLESSING? By Tet B, Levy SE MAKE YOUR OWN RELIGION By A, Gowans Wosts, BS. A YOUNG NAN'S NORALS By Henry Li, Cobb TWHY BE MORAL? By Hetor Ha S THE GIDDY GoD oF Luc hy Prstooine PRIEST OR PHYSICIAN? iy Gennes Godin | THE NATE ATTACK OS INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE Bel If BODY AS & GUIDE 10 POLITICS FAC, RELIGION J THR RIDDLE OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND 4 NEW SOLUTION ‘By Adem Gwinn Whyte, BS JAPAN'S NEW ORDER 39 George Gods THE NEW ORTHODOXY By F.H. Ampllst Mickiright, MA, “if CHURCH AND EDUCATION By Joa. Robertson (HB CHUKCIIWS AND THK NEW wont 21, CHINESE 1D S8, BATIONALISM AND CULTURE By 5.8, Auphtet Mee $4, ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOIS AND DEMOCRATIC 1GHTS By HH. Ample Mekoright 8h, ART AND CHRISTIANITY iy RC. Charl 436, ANGLICAN. SHIPWRECK Hy Aroitaid Robertson 31, RATIONALISM Bd 38 RELIGION AS AN OBJKCLIVE PROBLEM Ty $0 WHY WORRY AEOUT RELIGION? iy A, Gowsus Waste, RSs {By Av Maskaan iy Avro Ban 2y AGro Ment SPAIN AND THE VAICAN, THE VATICAN AND THE US. 42, LATIN AMERICA AND THE VATICAN 45. THR, VATICAN IN ASIA, 4h, RELIGION 1 RUSSIA ‘Find paiohd 1005 THE VATICAN IN ASIA ‘Tue Russian ReyoLUTion AND ITs REPERCUSSIONS ‘Tue increasing importance which Asia as a whole has assumed during the last few decades in the economic and political fields, the rapid emergence of its peoples onto the stage of world politics, the epoch-making changes which in recent years have taken place and continue to take place there—all this, in addition to numerous other no. less important factors, have of late focused the attention of a growing number of thinking men eastwards, When the radical changes which are taking place there are seen in relation to an ageing Europe, and at the same time to an American Continent bufsting with energy but suffering from the hesitancy of a political adolescence which a world leadership thrust upon it too suddenly has done nothing to dispel, the problems of Asia become as paramount to the West as they are to the Bast: indeed, they are as vital to a permanent stability of the world as any afecting the Western peoples. But whereas it seems quite obyious that racial, political, and economic factors are the mainspring of the dynamics of the New Asia, the religious ones, although deemed im- portant, are generally regarded as not having sufficient ‘weight soriously to influence the main stream of the Con- tinent’s life. That being so in respect of the chief religious creeds (e.g, Buddhism, Islamism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Shintoism, exc.) it follows that the influence which Chris: tanity can exert in that part of the world is considered to be, if not nil, at least so negligible as to be unworthy of serious consideration. 1| THE VATICAN IN ASIA Yet Christianity, although so alien to the Asiatic masses and numerically ‘so unimportant, is exerting a cultural, and aboye all a political, influence on. contemporary Asia out of all proportion to its size, this being especially true of its most compact, best-orgenized, and most powerful section: that is to say, of the Roman Catholic Church, ‘The Vatican (the political counterpart of the Roman Catholic Church) is playing a paramount role in the Far Hast, not so much because of the strength of its members, but owing chiefly to the inter-crossing of the world’s political currents, which more often than not bring into the picture factors which at first sight appear to be very remote from Asia and completely unconcerned with its destin: ‘The fact that to-day, more than ever before, the world is ono, and consequently’ that the internal, and above all the external, affairs of naiions have reciprocal repercussions, is the principal source of this interrelation of otherwise extraneous fetors in the shaping of the domestic and foreign policies of many lands. Political events in Europe or America can very often affect issues in Asia, and vice versa, The two world swars, to take the most obvious examples, are a case in point. “Thanks to this, the Vaticon—whose exertions otherwise would have been limited, broadly speaking, to the nominally Christian countries of the West—has been drawn in- creasingly into the affairs of Asia, with the result that to-day it can, with the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., exert a con= siderable influence upon the life of that great Continent. ‘The two factors which more than anything else have contributed to the Vetican’s growth of stature in a non Christian part of che world have beeri, first, a suecessfil social revolution in Europe, and secondly the far-reaching repercussions that the sptinging on to the stage of inter national polities by a revolutionary State has had upon THE VATICAN IN ASIA 3 numerous European and American countries who haye heen compelled to modify their foreign policies, not only with regard to Europe and the Americas, but t0 a great extent with regard also to Asia. ‘The revolution which completely transformed the polities of Europe, and ultimately of the world, was the Russian Revolution of 1927. The alignment of forces of the most diverse character, which from then onwards took place everywhere with a view to fighting the spread of the Red virus, compelled elements which until then had been com- pletely alien to each other, as well as nations whose relations had been lukewarm, to draw closer, reorientate their policies, consolidate their alliances, or create new ones in the light of what had happened in Russia. ‘The history of the period between the two world wars is too well known for us to recapitulate it here. Suffice it to mention that, as a direct result of the installation of Communism in Russia, there were born in Europe Italian Fascism and German Nazism, with the catastrophic con- sequences from which the world is still suffering. (On the Asiatic Continent the reaction against Soviet Russia, although taking a different shape, beceme equally violent. ‘The Vatican, by allying itself with those move- ‘ments or nations whose main aim wes to stop the mazch of Bolshevism and eventually to destroy it, began, at first yery cautiously, but then more openly, as it was doing in uurope, to take an increasing part in moulding the political life of contemporary Asi But whereas the role it played in Europe can be easily understood—Europe, after all, being still nominally a Christian continent —the role ‘it played and still continues to play in Asia is cortaialy more dificult to explain, so that the doubts generally expressed as to whether an institution like the Catholic Church can exercise an influence worthy aa4 THE VATICAN IN ASIA of record in the political life of Asia seem at first sight to be istified. Yet they are not so, as we now hope to show, oven if in a very suecinet form. Jaray, Key 10 tHe Vaticay’s Pouce on im Astatic ConTINENT * ‘The Vatican began to take a newly Zetive interest in the life of Asia as soon as the effeets of the suceessfill Russian Revolution made themselves felt inthe West and in the Fast; ftom.that time onward it has played an increasingly important role throughout that Continent, a role which, whilst having as its main object the safeguarding of religious interests there, was essentially diplomatic in character and political in nature, as we shall now see.) ‘The country to which, after x917, the Vatican began to. drasy closer was Japan. This was not because Japan had in any way distinguished herself for her love towards of course, had interests on the Asiatic s, of botha religious and a political character, of which we have defintte records, go back as far 4g the thirteenth century. Witness the mission undertaken by one Cerpini, or Friar John, a Franciscan chosen by the Pope to go to the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which was threatening; to overrun. Christendom. Friar John was actually received by the Great Khan, to whom he gave a leiter fiom the Pope, and from whom he received a sealed reply writen and signed by the Great Khan (1245). Tater a Khan named Kublai sent a request to the Pope for a hundred wise men 40 teach Christinity to the Chinese. The Polo broters were cliosen ashis envoys to Rome. On thelr return to Ching, in 127, the two ‘Venetian brothers were accompanied, not only by the famous Marco Polo, but also by two preaching Friars to teach the Christan faith ro Kublai Kean, Marco Polo is the first European +o tell us about the Islmnd.of Zipangu (Japan), where subsequently St, Francis Zayier ‘went to preach, followed by 2 host of missionaries who, with varying fortune, have spread the Chistian faith to this day. THE VATICAN IN ASTA 5 Christianity or the Catholic Church, nor because the ‘Vatican had any particular liking fos the Japanese religious or social systems: it was simply because Japan, in the ‘Variean’s opinion, was the sole nation in the whole of Asia who fitted into its grand strategical plans for counter- attacking Bolshevism on that Continent. The reasons which motivated this choice were obvious. Japan was the only great country in the Far East enjoying real independence; she had a siable rule which guaranteed consistency in her foreign policy notwithstanding the unayoidable changes of Government; she was a nation clearly in the ascendancy, potentially the leader of the Asiatic peoples; above all, she was the natural enemy of Soviet Russia. ‘The feud which had always existed between the two countries, and which during the first world war had momentarily been relegated to the background, was resumed and grew in intensity when Russia became a Bolshevist State, This was not difficult to understand; for, whereas a Caarist Russia was merely a barrier to Japan’s policy of expansion on Asiatic soil, a Soviet Russia, besides remaining a great obstacle to Japanese imperialism, was also a contre of zevolution outside Soviet boundaries, a promoter of an ideology whosé sim was to undermine and eventually t0 overthrow the structure, not only of Japan herself, but of the Japanese sphere of influence on the meinland, and indeed of the whole Asiatic Continent. ‘That such fears were well founded was proved by what svas happening in China, where in the years following the fist world war there emerged menacing and increasingly powerfill Communist armies (supplied swith armaments and Teaders from Moscow) which, besides leaving behind them the trail of misery common to all armies, were invariably characterized by their attempt to attain two specific goals