Bishop Sipovich new file

32 three possible choices: to belong to Poland, or Russia, or have complete independence. The fact that it is a Catholic country argues in favour of belonging to Poland; in Russia, on the other hand, Belarusian Catholics could spread their religion throughout the whole of that country. Both possibilities, however, have their dangers for Belarusians and require sacrifices from them. Bishop refuses to say what they should chose and leaves it to Belarusians themselves: ‘Let them decide about their own sacrifices’". This episode throws an interesting light on the curious mentality of the man who looked at the fate of the whole nation from what he thought was good for the Church, rather than trying to see how the Church could help the nation to achieve its full spiritual potential. Another curious episode, duly reported in the Chronicle, took place on 26 November 1943: "Father General (Buchys – A.N. ) assembled all Orientals in order to discuss with them the problem of the attitude towards all sorts of nations and nationalism. On this occasion he stressed that the Church is not directly concerned with the problems such as ‘whether Russia will include Ukraine and Belarus or not’. Therefore when the Pope in Rome helps the Ukrainian College, he has in mind the needs of the Church and not directly (the good) of Ukrainian people". The "Orientals", apart from Sipovich, were two Russian Theology students, whom Abrantovich had brought with him from Harbin in 1939. It is not fanciful to think that the reason for the meeting was the difference of opinion on national problems between them and Sipovich. It is a well known fact that Russian anti-communist emigrés were allergic to the idea of independence of Ukraine and Belarus. By the middle of 1943 it was becoming evident that the war, although it lost nothing of its ferocity, had reached its turning point. On 9 July the Allies, having defeated German and Italian troops in Africa, invaded Sicily. Thus the war reached Italian soil. On 19 July Rome was bombed for the first time by the Allies. All this proved fatal to the fascist regime of Mussolini who was overthrown on 25 July. The Italians refused to go on fighting and began secret negotiation with the Allies for armistice. The German forces, who were in Italy as allies, became an army of occupation. After the second allied air raid on 13 August, Rome was declared an "open city", i.e. free from any object of military interest, but it was not liberated till 4 June 1944.