1947 Christmas message of Pope Pius XII : radio message to the world given December 24, 1947 / by Hi


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Radio message to the world given

December 24, 1947, by His

Holiness, Pope Pius XII



Published by

National Catholic Welfare Conference

1312 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.

Washington 5, D. C.

Additional copies ten cents each

.



Radio Message to the World Given

December 24, 1947, by His

Holiness, Pope Pius XII

THE feast of Christmas and thenew year close at hand bring with
them certain signs which point a

warning finger toward the days to
come.

The customary greetings exchanged
at this season, which ascend to heaven
in a cloud of incense and of prayer,
cannot and will not, for all the deep
and sincere affection prompting them,
allow us to lose sight of the condition

which confronts us at the present hour,
when Europe and the wide world have
reached a turning point of their des-

tiny. The gravity of the crisis is un-
questionable, its possibilities for good
or evil immeasurable, its issue unpre-

dictable.

When last year on this same occa-
sion We addressed Our Christmas mes-
sage to the Catholic world, and to all
men of good judgment and good will
besides, who could have had it in his
heart to predict for humanity, tired

of war and hungry for peace, what
has today become a cruel, undeniable
reality?

Christmas bells will still ring in the

feast, as from the days of old. But
for many closed, embittered and tor-

mented hearts they ring out in the
desert, where they wake no living echo
any longer.

Now that another post-war year has
passed, with its burden of distress and
suffering, of disillusionment and priva-
tion, those who have eyes to see and
ears to hear cannot but be pained and
humiliated by this: Europe and the
world—even to distant and tormented
China—today are farther from real
peace, farther from complete and defi-
nite safety, farther from a new order
based firmly on agreement and justice,
than ever they were before.
The champions of negation and dis-

agreement, with the long line of
profiteers in their train, are jubilant

at the thought—or the illusion—that
their hour is near.

Contrariwise, the friends of peace,

the promoters of a lasting reconcilia-

tion between the peoples of the world,
feel the twinge of anguish in their
hearts when they compare the moral
and social wealth of Bethlehem’s

"good tidings” with the misery of a
world that has wandered far away
from Christ.

But genuine Christians, for whom

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the whole of life, the source of all its

lights and worth, consists in "thinking

with the Church,” perceive and realize

better than anyone else the meaning
and value of times like ours; times of

dense darkness, but of blinding light

as well; where the enemy of Christ
reaps a vast, tragic harvest of souls,

but many also of the good are leading
better lives; where generous hearts can

scale victoriously the peak of heroism,

while numbers of the tepid and the
faint of heart, slaves of human respect
and afraid of sacrifice, slip into medi-

ocrity or sink into the vile depths of

degradation, like these who "neither
rebels proved, nor yet were true to

God but for themselves were only.”
(Dante, Inferno.)

In the titanic struggle between the

two forces now competing for the
mastery of the world, if hatred is all

that is needed to marshal under the

leadership of the evil one men who
would seemingly have every ground to
disagree, what could love not accom-
plish toward uniting in a world-wide

league those whose high purpose, noble
instincts and community in suffering
have drawn them together by ties
stronger and more intimate than any
difference or divergency which could
keep them apart? To the millions
who are disposed to become members
of this world alliance, the charter of

which is the message of Bethlehem and
its unseen head the King and Peace-
maker who lies before us in the man-
ger, We direct at this juncture our
heartfelt appeal.

The brand on the brow of one gen-
eration, and the source of its disrup-
tion and decadence, is the tendency,

every day more obvious, to "insincer-

ity,” a lack of honesty, and this not

merely as an occasional expedient, or of

obstacles unforeseen. No. Today it
amounts practically to a system. It

has been raised to the distinction of a

strategy, in which the lie, the garbled

word or fact, and trickery have come
to be an accepted weapon of offense,
which some people wield with the skill

of professionals, boasting even of their

competence.

So clearly, as they view it, has the

suppression of all sense of right and

wrong come to be part and parcel of
modern technique in the art of form-

ing public opinion, of controlling it

and making it serve their political ends.

For they are bent on winning at any

cost the battle of class-interest and

theories, of ideologies and power poli-

tics.

We do not propose to describe here
in detail the havoc wrought by this

tournament of "insincerity” in public

life. But We are in duty bound to
open the eves of Catholics all over the

world—and of all others besides who
share our faith in Christ and a trans-

cendent God—to the dangers which
this prevalence of falsehood presents

for the Church and Christian civiliza-

tion, for the entire religious and even

merely human heritage which has sup-
plied the peoples of the world with the

substance of their spiritual life and of

their real greatness for the past 2,000

years.

When Herod of old was plotting
anxiously to slay the Babe of Bethle-

hem he hid his plan under a pious
mask, and tried his best to make the
honest men into unwitting spies. Like-

[ 4 ]



wise today, his modern imitators move
heaven and earth to conceal their real

purpose from the masses, and make
them the unconscious instruments of
their designs.

But once they have won power and
feel the reins securely in their hands,

little by little they let fall the veil,

and pass by successive stages from op-
pression of the dignity and liberty of

man to abolition of all authentic and
independent religious life.

Here, then, is the question We put
to all honest men: How is humanity to
recover, how can any "New Order”
worthy of the name emerge from the
mistakes and agitation of this present

hour of confusion, if the lines which

mark off friend from foe, yes from
no, and faith from lack of faith are
to be erased and moved about?

The Church, though her heart is
ever full of love and sympathy for
these erring souls, cannot fail to de-

nounce error, in loyalty to her Divine

Founder’s declaration: "He who is not
with me, is against me” {Matt. 12,
3 0). She cannot but tear the mask
from the "forgers of lies” ( Job 13, 4)
who come forward as wolves in sheep’s
clothing (CF. Matt. 7, 15), as found-

ers and pioneers of a new golden age.
She cannot but warn the faithful not
to let themselves be lured from the
path of rectitude, or be deluded by
fallacious promises.

Our position between the two op-
posing camps is exempt from every
prejudice, from any preference for
this or that people, for this or that

bloc of nations, as it is foreign to any
sort of temporal consideration. To be

with Christ or against Christ: that is

the whole question.

Each of the opposing sides believes

itself constrained to this mistrust, as

by a duty of elementary precaution.

Obviously, this very fact leads to the

building of an immense wall which

renders hopeless every attempt to

bring to the bewildered human family
the blessings of true peace.

Have we not had occasion, even
during the past few weeks, to experi-

ence the tangible results of this mis-

trust? Have we not seen a most im-
portant conference of the great pow-

ers adjourn without having taken

those essential and decisive steps along

the road to peace for which the world

in its anguish was waiting?

There can be but one way out of
the straits to which the cult of "insin-

cerity” has brought the world: the re-

turn to the spirit and practice of

straightforward honesty.

No one today—to whatever social
or political movement or party he may
belong—who wants to bring the
weight of his convictions and his pub-

lic acts to bear upon the present or

the future destiny of nations, has any

right to wear a mask, to appear to be

what he is not, to avail himself of the

strategy of the lie, of tension and of

threats, in order to restrict the honest

citizens of every land in the exercise

of their just liberty and civil rights.

You will readily understand, then,
how pained We are to see hostile prop-
aganda distorting what We think and
say, embittering men’s hearts, hinder-

ing the peaceful exchange of ideas,

and deepening the chasm which sepa-

rates from Us so many souls redeemed

m



by the Blood of the same divine and
loving Saviour. At the bottom of it
lies, unfailingly, the same identical

duplicity, deliberately adopted and

ruthlessly employed as the most inci-

sive weapon with which to combat
justice and truth, and hinder mu-
tual understanding, reconciliation and

peace.

The inevitable outcome of such a
situation is the splitting of humanity

into powerful and rival groups, whose

highest law of life and conduct is a

basic and invincible mistrust. Here is

at once the tragic paradox and the

curse of our time.

That is why We would remind you,
dear sons and daughters, that we cele-
brate tomorrow the birth of Him from
Whose lips one day escaped the cry:
"Veritas liberabit vos” ( John 8, 32);
the truth (which is His teaching)

shall make you free. Never, perhaps,
has this cry re-echoed so loudly as it

does today in a world hungry for
peace but forced to groan beneath the

oppressive yoke of falsehood.

Let all Christendom, too, make
answer—to Him who was made flesh
that He might be for all "way, truth
and life”—in a prayerful plea that the
truth may find its way back to the
hearts of the rulers of nations, whose

yes or no may determine the fate of
the world. And with the truth may
there shine out upon the earth no de-

ceptive mirage, but Bethlehem’s bright

star of peace divine.

II

Those who were absolutely deter-
mined to win the war were ready for
any sacrifice, even unto death. Those

who sincerely wish to win the peace
must be ready for sacrifices just as
generous, since nothing is more diffi-
cult for convulsed and embittered
human nature than to forego reprisals
and lay aside its unforgiving rancor.

The injustice and cruelty commit-
ted by those who unleashed the sec-
ond world war aroused waves of right-
eous indignation, but served, alas,

at the same time, to develop the seeds

of a natural inclination for revenge.

The saner portion of mankind

—

even among nations chiefly involved
in the conflict—u nanimously de-
nounced the excesses and atrocities

which a political system, falling into
moral nihilism, not only practiced dur-

ing the war which it provoked, but
even dared to justify in theory. Facts

and documents recently come to light
have only served to confirm that those

who sponsored and worked out this
system are mainly responsible for the

world’s misery today.

Men of the post-war period could
have easily confronted this degeneracy

with their own moral superiority; un-
fortunately, in not a few instances

they have let slip a golden opportu-

nity. It must be admitted that the

history of the world during the days

and weeks and months immediately

following the war was very far from
being one of unmixed glory.
The punishment justly meted out

to the chief culprits could have in-

spired Dante’s pen with scenes for the

Inferno, but the great poet would have

shrunk from depicting the reprisals

wrought upon the innocent.
Forced migrations and compulsory

hard labor followed later, defying the

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most elementary laws of humanity as

well as the letter and the spirit of the

rights of nations. Who, then, could
be surprised that the sense of justice

which had been rightly shocked at the

sight of such deeds perpetrated by one

side should also react similarly when
it sees others commit them?
Who can measure what further

moral domestic and social distress,

what harm to the cultural and eco-
nomic stability of Europe—and not
alone of Europe—will be caused be the
compulsory and indiscriminate dis-

placement of peoples, what sorrow at
present, what anguish for the future?
Only a broader vision, a wiser and
more judicious policy on the part of

those who hold the fate of the world
in their hands, can provide a tolerable

solution for an otherwise insoluble

problem.

All honor, then, to those of every

nation who shirk no privation or shun
no labor to hasten the fulfilment of
such a noble enterprise. Let them not
be troubled at the contradictions and

opposition they will have to meet and
which precisely in these days seem to
have grown more intense, in stimulat-
ing another war of nerves, provoking
discord, reducing to naught the efforts
of the champions of unity and peace.
Let them be confident that the hour
is at hand—as we trust and ask in
our prayers—when the King of peace
will grant victory to those who do bat-
tle for His cause with a right intention
and with the weapons of peace.

Ill

The human race, then, will be pow-
erless to emerge from the present

crisis and desolation and to go for-
ward to a more harmonious future
unless it restrain and control the forces

of division and discord by means of a
sincere spirit of brotherhood uniting

all classes, all races and all nations

with the one bond of love.
We launch such an appeal to the

entire world, today, the Eve of Christ-
mas, because we see this spirit of broth-
erhood in danger of being stifled and

crushed: because We see selfish appe-
tites getting the better of sound rea-

son, and the cruel tactics of oppression

and violence prevailing over loyal un-

derstanding and mutual respect, and
the utter disregard for any consequent

evils to the detriment of the zealous

maintenance of public welfare.

The Church, whose maternal heart
embraces all nations with equal affec-

tion, is following with great anxiety

this new development in national and
international conflicts.

When faith in God, the Father of all
men, begins to grow dim, the spirit
of brotherly union also loses its moral

foundation and cohesive force; and

when the consciousness of a society
embracing all men, as wished by

God, and which includes reciprocal
rights and duties, determined by fixed
norms, begins to die out, there arise

in its place a morbid hyper-sensitive-
ness to what divides, a ready propensity
to overstate one’s rights true or imag-

ined, and a neglect—at times thought-
less, but not for that reason less ruin-

ous—for the essential needs of others.
At this point, the way is open for

the struggle of all against all; a battle

which knows no other right except
that of the strongest.



Our age, alas, has provided some
sad examples of fratricidal war, result-

ing with relentless logic from the
weakening of the spirit of brotherhood.

Even the land which heard the hymn
of the Angels announcing peace to
men, which saw the Star of the Saviour
shine forth, and where the Divine

Redeemer died crucified for our salva-
tion—even that Holy Land with all
its memories and shrines most dear

to every Christian heart, is now divided
and has become the scene of blood and
strife. And Europe, herself, the center
of the whole great Catholic family

—

is she not perchance today, a warn-
ing and an example of the plight to

which the loss of the spirit of brother-
hood can reduce a part of the world

once so beautiful and flourishing? The
wounds she suffered during the late
war are still unhealed, and already the
sinister light of a new conflict flashes
on the horizon.

Oh, if all honest men were to unite
together, how quickly would the vic-
tory of the brotherhood of men be
realized and along with it the rehabili-

tation of the world! Such people al-

ready constitute a substantial element

of public opinion, and show that they
possess real human instincts, with polit-
ical wisdom as well.

But there are others just as numer-
ous, whose mere word has consider-
able weight in hastening or impeding

the peace of Europe—the necessary ini-
tial step toward world peace—and who
follow a course directly opposite. Are
they afraid, perhaps, that if Europe

were to recover, regain her strength,

and become conscious once more of
her Christian mission, she would wish

to rid herself of the deadly germ of
atheism and revolution and live a life

of her own, free from unhealthy for-
eign influence?

It is obvious that a Europe shiver-

ing and feverish from economic diffi-
culties and social chaos yields more
readily to the seductions and illusions

of a fatuous ideal state than a healthy

Europe with her vision clear.

Meanwhile, the propagators of such

deceptive schemes spare no effort to

make converts to their cause among
the fanatics and the simple, whose

aim, in turn, it will be to drag their

people along the path of ruin that oth-

ers have traveled before them, not

from choice but because their civil and
religious liberty had been systematic-

ally repressed.

Have we not had occasion to see
here, on the sacred soil of the city

where God has established the Chair
of Peter, the emissaries of a concept

of life and human society based on
atheism and violence sowing cockles

in the good earth of Rome, and doing
their utmost to convince her sons that

they have discovered and set up a new
culture more worthy of man than the
ancient and eternally youthful Chris-

tian civilization?

Since things have reached such a

pass, the time has surely come for

everyone who cherishes the human and
spiritual heritage of his forefathers to

rouse himself from sleep, take up the

arms of faith and courage, and preserve

the city, civilization’s mother, from

religious, moral and social deteriora-

tion such as might render very diffi-

cult to Our keen regret, that solemn

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celebration of the coming Holy Year
desired by Catholics the world over.

If, however, the frank words We
utter during today’s celebration know
no boundaries, they refer only to doc-
trines denying faith in God and Christ,
and certainly not' to the nations or
groups of nations who are the victims
of these doctrines. For these latter
the Church ever cherishes the same
constant love. Nay, the more they
suffer the greater is her love for them.

It is in the days of trial, rather than

in untroubled hours, that men of all
nations should realize that they are

brothers. The real meaning, the lofty
mission and the power to reconcile of
this brotherhood has never been, nor
shall ever be extolled with such force as
it was by "the first-born among many
brethren” (Rom. 8, 29), Who from
Bethlehem to Golgotha preached by
JHis example more than by His words
that great and universal brotherhood
of men.

Over this Christmas a dark cloud
is gathering. As the people’s anxious
yearning for peace grows ever more
intense, the inability of their lead-

ers to satisfy it by merely human means
is just as apparent. Do not the honest
efforts of some to arrive at an equit-
able peace and the systematic planning
of others to prevent its fulfilment
bring perchance to mind the picture
of a dangerous game of chance of
which the stakes are fortune or ruin?

Into the meeting places of men the
spirit of evil creeps unnoticed, "the
angel of the Abyss”

(
Apo. 9, 11);

the enemy of truth, the fomenter of
hatred, the denier and destroyer of all
sense of brotherhood, believing that his

hour is nigh, uses everything at hand
to hasten it. Nevertheless, We desire
to end Our Christmas message with an
irrepressible appeal for hope and con-

fidence.

Although faith in the Divine Re-
deemer prompts Christians to ponder
everything in the light of the truth—
ever ancient, ever new—of aged Sim-
eon’s declaration concerning the

Child Jesus at the presentation in the

temple: "Behold this child is destined

for the fall and for the rise of many.
. . . and for a sign that shall be contra-
dicted” (Luke 2, 34), still We know
that the number of those who do not
separate themselves from Christ by un-
belief, who cling to Him, who are
ready to give their lives for Him and
who place in Him and in the resurrec-
tion their unwavering hope—We know
that the number of these is great, that
it is increasing and growing strong.
We see them radiating energy and in-
fluence for good in every sphere of
life. We see that other men of good
will are joining them.

To you all, therefore, beloved sons
and daughters, We say: Your hour is
come.

At the assemblies of statesmen an-
other unseen spirit presided as Sover-

eign Lord, the Omnipotent God to
Whom nothing is secret and Who holds
in His hands the thoughts and hearts

of men, to bend them as He wills
and when He chooses; God, all of
Whose inscrutable designs are governed
by His paternal love. But to fulfill
these designs He wishes to make use
of your cooperation. In the day of

battle your place is in the vanguard,

fighting at the front. The timid and

[
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those afraid to come out in the open
are very close to becoming deserters
and traitors. He is a deserter and a
traitor who would give his material
support, his services, his talents, aid

or vote to parties and to forces which
deny God, which put might in place
of right, and threats and terror in

place of liberty, which make of lying,
opposition and incitement of the

masses to revolt so many weapons of
their policy, thus rendering national

and international peace impossible.

Let us bring ourselves back 300

years, to a Europe—torn by the hor-
rors of the Thirty Years’ War. The
year 1648 brought at last the mes-

sage of peace, the dawn of restoration.
Pray and work to obtain from God

the grace that the year 1948 may be
for wounded Europe and for the na-
tions torn by discord, a year of re-

birth and of peace. So pray and work
that after the rout of the spirit of

darkness, the angel of the bottomless

pit, the sun of justice may rise over
the world: Jesus Christ our Lord, to

Whom be honor and glory in time
and in eternity.

And now, let Our Apostolic Bless-
ing, a pledge of Divine grace and
aid, go out to all Our beloved sons
and daughters, those of this episcopal
city of Ours as of the whole world.
But let it extend especially to those
groaning under a heavier weight of

distress and pain; the sick, the poor,
the unemployed; the homeless and all
who are hungry and cold; for those
bereft of freedom, family, country

through the tragic happenings of a

dreadful war, through other men’s in-

justices or through their own past mis-
takes and faults and who feel the pang
of discouragement and anguish all the

more keenly at this holy season; to the
prisoners of war not yet restored to
their dear ones; to the refugees and

the displaced; in a special way to those,
particularly priests, suffering persecu-

tion, prison, exile, threats of torture

and of death, simply because of their

fidelity to God, to Christ, to the

Church and to their duty.

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