Academic Periodical

The article is a comparative analysis of the diplomatic activity Fr. Edmund A. Walsh, the American Jesuit and founder of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. It covers his time in Russia (1922–1923) and Mexico (1929), where he had been sent by Pope Pius XI. Both missions took place against the backdrop of difficult church-state relations and the shifting diplomatic situation externally: the formation of anti-church legislation by revolutionary governments; and the beginning of repressive actions against believers by governments. The situation in the former Tsarist empire was aggravated by famine, epidemics and other social consequences, at a time when diplomatic relations with other states were being terminated; in Mexico a civil war was raging (the Cristeros rebellion) and relations between Mexico and the US were very tense. Under such circumstances, Walsh, using his abilities and talents for the good of the people, tried to overcome the crisis by diplomatic means, to reach a compromise and to avoid the loss of human life. After a brief description of the aforementioned papal missions, there follows a summary of the general characteristics of the American Jesuit diplomatic activity carried out at the wishes of the Holy See.