America and the Vatican: Trading Information after WWII (review)

Robert F. Illing spent the bulk of his career as a U.S. foreign service officer, including five years as an assistant to Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., who was appointed the personal representative of President Richard Nixon to Pope Paul VI in 1970. Lodge was not accorded diplomatic rank or salary with this post, which he held until 1977, and never maintained his permanent residence in Rome. He was reimbursed for his expenses, however, when he made official visits to the Vatican, and the government paid for a permanent suite at the Grand Hotel, which served as the official office of the mission. Illing notes that Lodge made fourteen official visits during his five-year tour in Rome, spending an average of five to six weeks in the city each year. As assistant to Lodge, Illing remained in Rome and acted as a kind of chargé d’affaires, despite the lack of official diplomatic relations between the United States and the Holy See, as was the case until 1984.

Illing is a man of many interests. Those interests often are on display in this loosely woven narrative, which includes historical and cultural observations, personal anecdotes, some diplomatic history, and theological opinions. The book includes an index, but is without footnotes or bibliography. Some facts, stories, and events are repeated across chapters, and the tone of the whole is overwhelmingly personal. The complete work might best be understood as a memoir. Illing is an admirer of both Lodge and Paul VI, and is quite explicit in his esteem for all things “progressive.” In Paul VI, Illing finds a reflection of his own liberal preferences. All else is dismissed somewhat derisively, including some Catholic teachings. This is especially the case in the chapter “The Population Conundrum,” in which the author appears baffled by the apparent intransigence of the Holy See on the matter of contraception and birth control in contrast to the official position of the government he represented. Illing’s lack of theological, ecclesiological, and historical background is clear throughout the book.

The chapters that intend to sum up large periods of history are sometimes filled with little more than gross caricatures. This is overwhelmingly apparent in the fourth chapter, “Historical Growth of Papal Power,” which it might have been better to omit. His summary of the relationship between Benjamin Franklin and the nuncio to Paris (the third chapter) fails to credit any of the scholars who have long since brought this relationship to light. Rather, with his photocopies of contemporary documents found in the Vatican archives, he might leave some with the impression that this story is his discovery. The second chapter, which outlines the history of bilateral relations between the United States and the Papal States/Holy See, is more helpful, but again, is still sketchy and lacks attribution of sources.

The chapters that review particular diplomatic relations with regard to specific nations while Illing served at the Vatican contain useful memories of an ancillary participant and professional diplomatic observer. The story of Cardinal Josef Mindszenty might be of some interest to a wider audience, as may be the review of U.S. relations with the Holy See in light of the Vietnam War. But it is doubtful that Illing’s nation-by-nation review (“Covering the Waterfront”) would, in the main, be of interest to the general public. More intriguing, perhaps, would be the string of personal encounters, along with impressions, that included visiting U.S. presidents and other politicians, General Josip Tito, and Gloria Swanson.