George J. Sosnowski to Woodrow Wilson

The appeal of the Pope to the leaders of the belligerent people to end this war may be safely assumed to have been the result of the pressure brought to bear upon him by the Jesuits. And this being so, the chief object of the peace proposal is undoubtedly to protect the interests of the Roman Catholic Church, to save the Roman Catholic States, to keep in power the Roman Catholic Dynasties. The fact must be that the hierachy of the Roman Catholic Church would look upon the fall of the Hapsburgs as a calamity to that Church. If then it is the power of the Roman Catholic Church they are trying to save, it is improbable that the Holy Father and the "Black Pope" will interfere with the dismemberment of Prussia or the humiliation of the Hohenzollerns, if to do so would be against their interests.

The Pope's appeal will exercise little influence on the Western front, but it will have a very great effect upon the Eastern front due to the fact that the Austrians and the Poles are Roman Catholics, and that the Russians are very religious; therefore, I believe that if the reply of the United States and the Allies could take advantage of the vague wording of the Pope's note and after writing into it the Wilson doctrine, adopt it, the result would be highly favorable to the United States and to the cause of the Allies. Should Germany then reject the Pope's note so interpreted by the United States and the Allies, Austria might find in such action on the part of Germany a good reason for seeking a separate peace with the Allies.

Would it not seem, therefore, as if the Pope's note might be made to serve the side which first answers and interprets it?

I am, Your Excellency,