SUSPENSION DE LA PRESCRIPCION

The Secretariat of State’s December 1921 Observations were quickly followed by the traditional Christmas religious ceremonies in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, at which Cardinal Gasparri had ordered the status quo as to the French liturgical honours be maintained until the Palestine Mandate was formally granted to Britain.264 This was the last Pope Benedict XV would know of the Holy Land about which he had so much concern: “in the latter half of January 1922 the Pope fell ill. His malady, apparently at first a cold, soon turned to disquieting symptoms, and within a week, on the 22nd

January, he was dead”.265 He had veered between warm support for Nahum Sokolow

in 1917 and open alarm for the tendency of events in Palestine in 1921. Yet at no time did he ever express opposition to the Zionist project for a Jewish national home in Palestine. The Holy See’s two long-standing historical policies for the Holy Land remained firmly in place at the end of his pontificate.

In the light of the news of Pope Benedict XV’s death the editor of the Zionist publication Israel wrote that “we still believe in the sound judgement of the Vatican”. The “Zionist Review wrote that in Jewish history Pope Benedict XV would be remembered for the various acts of mercy affecting Jews during World War I, and according to this journal, the Jews had especially appreciated his benevolent attitude toward Zionist proposals at the most critical period, at a time when unfriendly intervention of the papacy would have caused serious misgivings in authoritative quarters”. The Palestine Weekly in Palestine itself praised the late Pope for his

264

G.1.1.18 FO 371/6381 Registry No. 57/57/88 Despatch No. 148 of 24 December 1921 and attached

copy Protocol No. B-14056 of 20 December 1921 from Cardinal Gasparri to Count de Salis. At FO 371/6381 Registry No. E 490/57/88 is a confidential report from Sir Herbert Samuel to Lord Curzon of 10 January 1921 with a complete description of the liturgical honours paid to the French Consul General at the Latin Convent at Bethlehem on 25 December 1920.

265_{G.1.1.27 FO 371/7671 Registry No. C 15334/8227/22 Report on Mission to the Holy See from}

understanding of the importance of the Balfour Declaration and its role in “the redemption of a race which has suffered so much at the hands of Christianity”.266 Pope Benedict XV never opposed the Balfour Declaration, nor even criticised it. He never opposed the proposal for a Jewish national home in Palestine. He never opposed the granting of the Palestine Mandate to Great Britain. Rather, he was critical of the manner in which the British administration was handling its role in Palestine and was particularly critical of the way in which it placed Jewish people in privileged positions and favoured Jewish interests at the expense of other communities in Palestine, especially the Christian interests. In doing this, Benedict XV was being entirely consistent with the terms of the Balfour Declaration itself which guaranteed that the project for a Jewish national home was to be achieved without derogating from the existing rights and privileges of those other communities present in Palestine.

The clear and constant preoccupation of Pope Benedict XV for the Holy Land was for the Holy Places and the membership of the proposed Holy Places Commission. His statements on Palestine were always restrained, leaving his Secretary of State to undertake more forceful background briefing to those with whom he inter-acted and which expressed concern at the way in which the Zionist project was being allowed far greater scope than had previously been foreshadowed. Cardinal Archbishop Bourne of Westminster pursued a more forceful line in his representations to the British Government about Zionism but he did not do so as a representative of the Holy See.

The new Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Monsignor Barlassina, quickly became a frank and vocal critic of what he felt was occurring in Palestine but it becomes apparent that his views and policies did not necessarily reflect those of the Holy See. The evidence supports the conclusion that, although he was never anti-Semitic in his openly expressed views, Barlassina quickly became a staunch critic of the speed and

266

Minerbi, 162-163. Minerbi himself rejects these “encomiums” on behalf of Pope Benedict XV from Jewish and Zionist quarters, seeing in them “blindness”, but they reflect how Jewish and Zionist circles saw this Pope at that time and show that he was considered in those circles neither to be anti-Zionist nor anti-Semitic.

vigour with which the Zionist project for a Jewish national home in Palestine unfolded from 1919. His overriding concern was for the maintenance of the long- held rights of the Latin Catholic Church in the Holy Land and for the rights and interests of the indigenous, and particularly but not exclusively, Catholic populace of Palestine. He would continue this approach during the pontificate of Pope Pius XI as the Holy See continued to pursue its own long-held policies for the Holy Land, the protection of the Holy Places and the nurturing and safeguarding of the interests of

CHAPTER 4: UNEASY MANDATE – POPE PIUS XI AND PALESTINE