 He was concerned too about the potential spread of Communism in Western Europe and the Americas . As he sought to secure resources from abroad to aid post @-@ war recovery , believing deprivation fuelled political agitation , so he also sought to influence Italian politics . In January 1948 , Luigi Gedda , of Italy 's Catholic Action movement , was called to the Vatican as the campaign for the first parliament of Italy 's post @-@ fascist republic was underway . The Communists and Socialists seemed headed for victory and Pius XII wanted Catholic Action , an organization of Catholic laity , to mobilise the Catholic vote against parties of the Left . In July 1949 he approved a controversial move by the Holy Office to threaten with excommunication anyone with known Communist affiliations . A group of Jesuits around the journal La <unk> Cattolica , active in Vatican circles , further spread alarm that fifth columns of Soviet Communism were active in Western Europe poised to exploit popular discontent to aid Soviet expansionism . 
