The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic

139

RICARDO PITTINI: ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF SANTO DOMINGO

and a $10,000 prize. In February 1937,

Nicholas Murray Butler, President of

Columbia University and chairman of

the U.S. committee appointed by Pres-

ident Franklin D. Roosevelt to raise

funds for the Christopher Columbus

Memorial Lighthouse in the United

States, visited the Dominican Repub-

lic. Trujillo presented Butler with the

Order of Duarte, and Pittini gave But-

ler and his wife a tour of the Basilica

Cathedral of Santa María la Menor,

which included opening the urn that

contained the remains of Columbus

that would be interred in the light-

house once completed. In 1946, the

General Assembly of the United Na-

tions unanimously approved the pro-

ject. After a lengthy speech by Trujillo

during the lighthouse’s groundbreak-

ing ceremonies on April 14, 1948, Pit-

tini blessed the construction site and

future work on the project.

The light-

house was completed in time for the

1992 quincentennial celebration of the

European discovery of the Americas.

In the post-World War II period, both Trujillo and Pittini were ardent anti-Communists. On March 26,

1946, in an article in the now defunct Dominican newspaper

La Nación

, Pittini declared that the Roman

Catholic Church in the Dominican Republic was strongly opposed to Communism. The U.S. Department

of State, acknowledging the Church’s opposition to Communism, realized that U.S. support of Trujillo’s

dictatorship was beneficial to the U.S. strategy of containment of Communism. According to George F.

Scherer, the U.S. Chargé in the Dominican Republic, “The present administration by its oppressive meas-

ures may be expected to keep the Dominican Republic free of any significant Communist penetration.

However, the real danger from Communism in the Dominican Republic will materialize when President

Trujillo falls from power. As the whole political life of the country is centered in the Dominican Party and

as that party has no basic program other than the maintenance of Trujillo in power, his fall will probably

bring about that political vacuum which is so favorable to the rapid growth of the Communist Party.”

The 1954 Concordat with the Vatican gave Roman Catholicism special treatment as the majority faith

in the Dominican Republic.

The Concordat, the first one signed between the Vatican and a Latin Ameri-

can nation during the 20

century, provided the Trujillo dictatorship with a high degree of prestige both at

home and abroad. This Concordat, much to the pleasure of Pittini, extended special privileges to the Catho-

lic Church not granted to other religious groups. Privileges included funding for expenses such as adminis-

tration and construction, visa exceptions, and exemptions from customs duties. Significantly, it recognized

and guaranteed the property of the Church and declared that temples and religious buildings belonged to

the Church. Pittini, citing Trujillo’s “resolute protection” of the Church, contended that the Church in the

Dominican Republic had “reached a degree of splendor it had never known before.”

One could argue that

1954 was the pinnacle of friendship between the Church and the Trujillo dictatorship.

President Héctor

Bienvenido Trujillo

Molina at the

reception offered for

the Apostolic Nuncio

Lino Zanini.

Nación