Life with a Mission: Cardinal Willem Marinus van Rossum C.Ss.R. (1854–1932) ed. by Vefie Poels, Theo Salemink, and Hans de Valk (review)

Roughly a half a dozen non-Italians rose to the top of the Roman Curia in the first half of the twentieth century. One of them was Cardinal Willem Marinus van Rossum of the Netherlands. Born in 1854, van Rossum joined the Redemptorists twenty years later. Specializing in moral theology and canon law, he was called to Rome in 1895, working with Pietro Gasparri and Eugenio Pacelli on the codification of canon law between 1904 and 1917. In 1911, he was made a cardinal, and in 1915 he was appointed Grand Penitentiary, responsible for deciding such matters as the remission of grave sins as well as canonical censures such as excommunication, exemptions, and dispensations. Three years later, he was made “red pope,” prefect of the missionary Congregation of De Propaganda Fide. He died in 1932.

These essays/articles are the first steps toward a definitive biography of van Rossum. Joop Vernojji and Otto S. Lankhorst provide accounts of his early life, and Eric Corsius discusses the influence of the Redemptorists’ theological tradition on him. An evaluation of van Rossum’s role in the campaign against modernism during the pontificate of Pius X is offered by Otto Weiss, and his contribution to the codification of canon law is assessed by Anna Luisa Casiraghi. Especially useful are the essays on various aspects of van Rossum’s fourteen-year stint at Propaganda, his contribution to the “postcolonialist” turn taken by missionary policy under Popes Benedict XV and Pius XI (Claude Prudhomme), his over-optimistic hopes for the conversion of Scandinavia (Vefie Poels), and the problems of the Catholic missions in what is now Indonesia (Hans de Valk). Marcel Chappin examines the phenomenon of international Eucharistic congresses, as van Rossum presided over two of them: Vienna (1912) and Amsterdam (1924).

There are other gems, like Johann Ickx’s essay on van Rossum’s tenure as Grand Penitentiary and Monsignor Giuseppe Maria Croce’s essay, “Regards sur la Curie romaine de 1895 à 1932.” The latter gives an excellent insight into the transformation of the Roman Curia from what had been the court of an Ancien Régime monarchy (the Papal States) into a more functional instrument of government of the universal Church. It also suggests that the scandals recently alluded to in “Vati-leaks” are nothing new. Theo Salemink, in “Cardinal Willem van Rossum and the Amici Israel (1926–1928):The Conversion of the Jews and the Debate on Zionism,” casts new light on the bizarre retroscena to the condemnation of Amici d’Israele¹—to wit, the curious relationship among van Rossum; the Dutch Jewish convert Francisca (originally Sophie) van Leer; the German Franciscan friar Laetus Himmelreich, who converted her; and a canon of the order of the Holy Cross, Anton van Asseldonk, who accompanied van Leer to Palestine to found a “Catholic kibbutz.”

Vefie Poels points out that van Rossum embodied the interface among three kinds of Catholic milieu—Dutch Catholicism, the Redemptorists, and the Roman Curia. But she also says, “…we have no clear understanding of van Rossum’s attitudes towards the main political movements of his time, such as Fascism, Communism, and the first wave of feminism or suffragettism” (p. 193). The study of these will not only be essential in achieving that definitive biography but also will broaden our understanding of the culture of the Roman Curia in van Rossum’s day.