In the Name of Humanity by Max Wallace

Author:Max Wallace
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510734999
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2018-03-27T04:00:00+00:00

Jean-Marie Musy was born in 1876 in the tiny village of Albeuve in Fribourg, one of the seven Catholic Sonderbund cantons defeated in a civil war against the Protestant-dominated central authority three decades earlier. The Catholic character of the picturesque area—located at the foot of the Bernese Alps—had survived the Reformation, which saw much of the country turn to Protestantism. Today, the region is dotted with churches and monasteries that attest to its long Catholic heritage. Having made their fortune in land development, Musy’s relatives were prominent members of the Fribourgeois elite—a distinguished family whose aristocratic roots could be traced back to the pre-Napoleonic Ancien Régime. While his father was a simple innkeeper in Albeuve, it was his grandfather, Pierre-Joseph Musy—a prominent local politician—who would have the strongest influence on the young boy. Musy attended law school in Munich and Berlin and returned to Switzerland to practice law for nearly a decade. In 1912, he was persuaded to run for a seat in the cantonal government under the banner of the Conservative People’s Party (PDC). Formerly called the Catholic People’s Party, the PDC had removed the reference to religion from its name but not its platform, which was dedicated to preserving a “Christian world view.”

In 1919, Musy was elected to the Federal Council, which became a launching pad for his long career in Swiss politics as the standardbearer of the conservative Catholic right. As a councillor, Musy quickly demonstrated a particular proficiency for economic matters and was eventually appointed chairman of the federal finance department. He imposed austerity measures that helped stabilize the country’s finances while ingratiating himself with the powerful banking industry by blocking legislation that would have regulated Swiss banks.24 This helped vault him to the presidency of the Federal Council for the first time in 1925. Briefly toppled by the council four years later, he regained the post in 1930, before stepping down for the last time in 1934.

As president, Musy often described himself as a centrist. Toward the end of his tenure, however, he became increasingly more preoccupied with the perceived threat of Bolshevism posed by the Soviet Union. Although he had been raised Catholic, it was his wife’s family who were considerably more devout. The father of Marie-Thérèse had served many years in the pope’s Swiss Guard and was eventually named a papal count—a connection that gave Jean-Marie direct access to the Vatican.25 Growing increasingly devout himself, he had watched as Stalin cracked down on the Russian Orthodox Church. Declaring war on most religious groups, the Soviet dictator was particularly determined to wipe out any traces of the once powerful Russian Orthodox religion, along with Roman Catholicism. Thousands of clergy were killed or sent to labor camps. By 1926, only a year into Musy’s presidency, not a single Roman Catholic bishop remained in the Soviet Union.26

As the Church became increasingly vitriolic in its attacks on Communism, so too did Musy perceive Bolshevism to be the greatest threat facing Europe. During most of his political career,

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