Between “Pro Deo” and “Under God”: Catholic Institutions and America’s Cold War

This presentation will outline the parable of the “American Council for the International Promotion of Democracy Under God,” the US chapter of a transnational Catholic venture known as “Pro Deo.” Founded in 1932 by Belgian Dominican friar Félix A. Morlion (1904-1987) as a press center, “Pro Deo” developed into an extensive transnational network of educational institutions and information centers following Morlion’s exile in Portugal and the United States during World War II. Morlion sought to carry out the “apostolate of public opinion,” recommended by Pope Pius XI to reestablish the Church’s influence on secularized modern societies by gaining a foothold in mass media communication. However, Morlion’s use of mass media to promote a Christian-friendly vision of democracy also caught the attention of US policymakers, first during World War II, when the Office of Strategic Services availed itself of Pro Deo’s services to the dual end of liberating Europe from Nazi-fascism and safeguarding it from a communist takeover, and later during the Cold War. In 1956, Morlion pitched Pro Deo to Henry R. Luce as a Church agency dedicated to exporting to Europe and Latin America, and later to the newly decolonized nations of Africa and Asia, “the American way of life,” which Morlion understood as “the only national democratic tradition based explicitly on theology as basis of godgiven rights.” The Catholic Church’s capillary global presence, coupled with its centralism, would make it a reliable ally in America’s quest to win the hearts and minds of the world to Christian democracy. Yet, the Vatican’s hesitant green light to Morlion’s operations (and American democracy) complicated the Dominican’s fundraising efforts.

By analyzing the promise and peril of Catholic institutional thinking and acting for American Cold Warriors, this paper will offer new insights into how “religion” was mobilized during the Cold War.