trust.”59 Pacem in terris was therefore about policy, but it made
clear the Vatican’s newfound priority of dialogue, intended to en-
gage also countries behind the Iron Curtain.60
Much to the chagrin of a large proportion of the bishops who
attended Vatican II—not least the Poles61—no official conciliar
document included a condemnation of communism. As Melissa J.
Wilde has underscored, even though communism “was an impor-
tant issue at the Council,” and “many conservatives were quite in-
vested in getting the Council to condemn it... progressives gener-
ally avoided the issue, and no condemnation of communism came
from the Council.”62
Ecclesiam suam, issued one year later by the next pontiff, could,
at face value, be seen as compensation for that failure. In a move
calculated to keep atheism and communism from monopolizing
the attention of frustrated conservatives, Paul VI devoted an entire
section of Ecclesiam suam to “Communist Oppression.” In a pas-
sage reminiscent of Pius XI and Pius XII, Paul VI describes “athe-
istic communism” as an ideology that denies “God and oppress[es]
the Church... it is rather they and their politicians who are clearly
repudiating us [Catholics], and for doctrinaire reasons subjecting
us to violent oppression.”63 Dialogue with Communist regimes—
warned the pontiff—would be “very difficult, not to say impossi-
ble.” Rather, Paul VI concluded, “The only witness that the Church
- John XXIII, Pacem in terris (April 11, 1963), at http://www.vatican.va/holy_
father/john_xxiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_j-xxiii_enc_11041963_pacem_en.html;
accessed January 1, 2014. - On Pacem in terris, see chapter 1, by Gerald P. Fogarty, in this volume; Lux-
moore and Babiuch, Vatican and the Red Flag, 117–20. - See chapter 5, by Piotr H. Kosicki, in this volume.
- Wilde, Vatican II, 137. Wilde tells the story of a petition, circulated two
weeks into the Fourth Session by the Coetus Internationalis Patrum lobby seeking
the Council’s condemnation of communism, that garnered only 435 signatures, of
which more than a third came from Italian or Spanish bishops; ibid., 70. - Paul VI, Ecclesiam suam (August 6, 1964), at http://www.vatican.va/holy_fa-
ther/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_06081964_ecclesiam_en.html;
accessed June 2, 2014.
INTRODUCTION 21