Geidner F (2021)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2021
Book Volume: 141
Pages Range: 223-254
During the 1920s, the Catholic journalist Friedrich von Lama accused the former Reich Chancellor Georg Michaelis of having thwarted the 1917 peace efforts of Pope Benedict XV. When a court procedure between Lama and the President of the German Protestant League Bruno Doehring, a supporter of Michaelis, seemed imminent, the papal nuncios Eugenio Pacelli and Alberto Vassallo di Torregrossa intervened. In keeping with their courtly-monarchical outlook and modes of conduct, the two nuncios rejected a public debate about the peace diplomacy of the late pontiff. They also worried that a court case could further deepen the divide between Catholics and Protestants in Germany, as well as negatively impact the ongoing negotiations for a concordat. Accordingly, they secretly attempted to forestall a court case, which threatened to strain relations between Germany and the Vatican considerably. Ultimately, it was a case of a democratic society's claims to full and open political participation in matters of the state standing diametrically opposed to the Holy See's insistence on diplomacy as a matter of arcanum (the preserve of specialist insiders).
APA:
Geidner, F. (2021). Publicity and Arcanum. Vatican Diplomacy of the 1920s in the Context of the Lama-Doehring Trial and the Conflict in Germany over Benedict XV's Peace Initiative. Historisches Jahrbuch, 141, 223-254.
MLA:
Geidner, Florian. "Publicity and Arcanum. Vatican Diplomacy of the 1920s in the Context of the Lama-Doehring Trial and the Conflict in Germany over Benedict XV's Peace Initiative." Historisches Jahrbuch 141 (2021): 223-254.
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