The Pittsburgh Press (June 8, 1946)
Background of news –
Vatican representative
By Bertram Benedict
Protestant churches in the United States once more are protesting against the presence at the Vatican of a personal representative of the president of the United States.
Last March, the Council of Methodist Bishops appointed a committee to consider the “diplomatic representation at the Vatican on the part of the United States.” And on Wednesday a delegation of Protestant leaders called on President Truman to urge him to recall Myron H. Taylor as his representative at the Vatican – because it was “contrary to the historic American principle of the separation of church and state.”
As a matter of record, many countries which separate church and state, such as France, maintain full diplomatic relations with the Vatican. So do countries with a Protestant state church, such as Great Britain. So do (or did until recently) non-Christian countries like Japan and China.
Ever since 1893 the Vatican has been represented in Washington by an apostolic delegate. He merely reports to the pope on developments in the United States, and has no official relations with the United States government.
The Vatican maintains apostolic delegations in other countries with which it does not have diplomatic relations, including Canada.
Full legation established
There was a time when the United States maintained full diplomatic relations with the Vatican. In 1789, the pope was head of a large temporal domain, with capital at Rome, but for almost 60 years the United States was represented at the papal capital only by a consul.
Then, in 1848 the United States established a full legation at Rome. Curiously enough, this step was taken at a time when anti-Catholic movements in the United States such as “Native Americanism” were growing in strength and influence.
In 1867, although anti-Catholic agitation in the United States had died down, the United States ended its diplomatic relations with the Vatican. The House of Representatives in January of that year voted by 82-18 to discontinue appropriations for the legation at Rome after June 30, 1867, and the Senate failed to restore the appropriation.
It was pointed out in the House debate that the temporal power of the papacy was collapsing before the movement for a united Italy. However, probably another reason for the action of the House was a belief that the pope had shut down on Protestant worship in Rome. Rufus King, at the time the U.S. minister to the Vatican, protested in vain that this belief was unfounded.
Free state created in 1929
The temporal power of the papacy was ended in 1870. It was restored in 1929, when the Lateran accord with Italy created the Vatican Free State, with an area of 109 acres within the city of Rome.
In December 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, President Roosevelt appointed Mr. Taylor, an Episcopalian, as his personal representative at the Vatican.
President Truman in announcing last May 3 his decision to send Mr. Taylor back to Rome in the same capacity, said that the latter would confer not only with the Holy Father but with other spiritual leaders, also with secular and political leaders, in Europe. The president said:
“I feel the necessity of having for my guidance the counsel and cooperation of all men and women of good will… I have therefore sought the advice of leaders in religion of various convictions and allegiances.”