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Official English Translation of the Christmas 1942

Message of Pope Pius XII transmitted by radio to

the world.

NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE
Washington, D. C.

1943

Ransdell Inc., Washington, D. C.



1942 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

OF

POPE PIUS XII

M y dear children of the whole world

:

As the Holy Christmas Season comes round

each year, the message of Jesus, Who is light in

the midst of darkness, echoes once more from the Crib

of Bethlehem in the ears of Christians and re-echoes in

their hearts with an ever new freshness of joy and piety.

It is a message which lights up with heavenly truth a

world that is plunged in darkness by fatal errors. It

infuses exuberant and trustful joy into mankind, torn

by the anxiety of deep, bitter sorrow. It proclaims lib-

erty to the sons of Adam, shackled with the chains of

sin and guilt. It promises mercy, love, peace to the

countless hosts of those in suffering and tribulation who

see their happiness shattered and their efforts broken in

the tempestuous strife and hate of our stormy days.

The church bells, which announce this message in

every continent, not only recall the gift which God made

to mankind at the dawn of the Christian Era; they also

announce and proclaim a consoling reality of the present,

a reality which is eternally young, living and lifegiving;

it is the reality of the “True Light which enlighteneth

every man that cometh into this world,’' and which

knows no setting. The Eternal Word, Who is the Way,
the Truth and the Life, began His mission of saving and

redeeming the human race by being born in the squalor

of a stable and by thus ennobling and hallowing poverty.

He thus proclaimed and consecrated a message which

is still, today, the Word of Eternal Life. That message

can solve the most torturous questions, unsolved and in-

soluble for those who bring to their investigations a men-

tality and an apparatus which are ephemeral and merely

human: and those questions stand up, bleeding, imperi-

1



2 1942 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

ously demanding an answer, before the thought and the

feelings of embittered and exasperated mankind. The

watchword ‘T have compassion on the multitude'’ is for

Us a sacred trust which may not be abused; it remains

strong and impelling in all times and in all human situa-

tions, as it was the distinguishing mark of Jesus.

The Church would be untrue to herself, ceasing to be

a mother, if she turned a deaf ear to children's an-

guished cries, which reach her from every class of the

human family. She does not intend to take sides for

either of the particular forms in which the several peoples

and States strive to solve the gigantic problems of do-

mestic order or international collaboration, as long as

these forms conform to the Law of God. But, on the

other hand, as the 'Tillar and Ground of Truth" and

guardian, by the will of God and the mandate of Christ,

of the natural and supernatural order, the Church cannot

renounce her right to proclaim to her sons and to the

whole world the unchanging basic laws, saving them from

every perversion, obfuscation, corruption, false interpre-

tation and error.

This is all the more necessary for the fact that from

the exact maintenance of these laws and not merely by

the effort of noble and courageous wills, depends in the

last analysis the solidity of any national and international

order, so fervently desired by all peoples.

We know the qualities of courage and sacrifice of those
peoples, and We also know their straitened conditions
and their sorrow; and in this hour of unspeakable trial

and strife We feel Ourselves bound to each and every one
of them without exception, by a deep, all-embracing, un-

moveable affection, and by an immense desire to bring

them every solace and help which is in any way at our

command.

International Relations and Order Within the Nations

In Our last Christmas Message, We expounded the
principles which Christian thought suggests, for the es-



OF POPE PIUS XII 3

tablishment of an international order of friendly rela-

tions and collaboration such as to conform to the demands

of God's Law; today We shall with the consent, We feel,
and the interested attention of all upright men pause to

consider very carefully and with equal impartiality, the

fundamental laws of the internal order of States and

peoples.

International relations and internal order are inti-

mately related. International equilibrium and harmony

depend on the internal equilibrium and development of

the individual States in the material, social and intellec-

tual spheres. A firm and steady peace policy towards
other nations is, in fact, impossible without a spirit of

peace within the nation which inspires trust. It is only,

then, by striving for an integral peace, a peace in both

fields, that people ^vill be freed from the cruel nightmare

of war, and the material and psychological causes of fur-

ther discord and disorder will be diminished and gradu-

ally eliminated.

Double Element of Social Life

Every society, worthy of the name, has originated in

a desire for peace, and hence aims at attaining peace, that

“tranquil living together in order” in which St. Thomas

finds the essence of peace.

Two primary elements, then, regulate social life: a liv-
ing together in order and a living together in tranquillity.

Living Together in Order

Order, which is fundamental in an association of

men (of beings, that is, who strive to attain an end appro-

priate to their nature) is not a merely external linking up

of parts which are numerically distinct. It is rather, and

must be, a tendency and an ever more perfect approach to

an internal union; and this does not exclude differences

founded in fact and sanctioned by the will of God or by

supernatural standard.

A clear understanding of the genuine fundamentals



4 1942 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

of all social life has a capital importance today as never

before, when mankind, impregnated by the poison of

error and social aberrations, tormented by the fever of

discordant desires, doctrines and aims, is excitedly toss-

ing about in the disorder which it has itself created, and

is experiencing the destructive force of false ideas, that

disregard the Law of God or are opposed to it. And

since disorder can only be overcome by an order which

is not merely superimposed and fictitious (just as dark-

ness with its fearful and depressing effects can only be

driven away by light and not by will o’ the wisps) ; so

security, reorganization, progressive improvement can-

not be expected and cannot be brought about unless by a

return of large and influential sections to correct notions

about society.

It is a return which calls for the Grace of God in large

measure, and for a resolute will, ready and prepared for

sacrifice on the part of good and farseeing men. From

these influential circles who are more capable of penetrat-

ing and appreciating the beauty of just social norms, there

will pass on and infiltrate into the masses the clear knowl-

edge of the true, divine, spiritual origin of social life.

Thus the way will be cleared for the reawakening, the

growth and the fixing of those moral principles without

which even the proudest achievements create but a babel

in which the citizens, though they live inside the same

walls, speak different and incoherent languages.

God, the First Cause and Ultimate Foundation

of Individual and Social Life

From individual and social life we should rise to God,

the First Cause and Ultimate Foundation, as He is the

Creator of the first conjugal society, from which we have

the society which is the family, and the society of peoples

and of nations. As an image, albeit imperfect, of its

Exemplar, the One and Triune God, Who through the
Mystery of the Incarnation redeemed and raised human

nature, life in society, in its ideals and in its end, pos-



OF POPE PIUS XII 5

sesses by the light of reason and of revelation a moral

authority and an absoluteness which transcend every tem-

poral change.

It has a power of attraction that, far from being weak-

ened or lessened by delusions, errors, failures, draws

irresistibly the noblest and most faithful souls to the

Lord, to take up with renewed energy, with added knowl-

edge, with new studies, methods and means, the enter-

prises which in other times and circumstances were tried

in vain.

Development and Perfection of the Human Person

The origin and the primary scope of social life is the

conservation, development and perfection of the human

person, helping him to realize accurately the demands

and values of religion and culture set by the Creator for

every man and for all mankind, both as a whole and in its

natural ramifications. A social teaching or a social re-
construction program which denies or prescinds from

this internal essential relation to God of everything that

regards man, is on a false course
;
and while it builds up

with one hand, it prepares with the other the materials

which sooner or later will undermine and destroy the

whole fabric. And when it disregards the respect due to
the human person and to the life which is proper to that

person, and gives no thought to it in its organization, in

legislative and executive activity, then instead of serving

society, it harms it
;
instead of encouraging and stimulat-

ing social thought, instead of realizing its hopes and ex-

pectations, it strips it of all real value and reduces it to

a utilitarian formula which is openly rejected by con-

stantly increasing groups.

If social life implies intrinsic unity, it does not, at the

same time, exclude differences which are founded in fact

and nature. When we hold fast to God, the Supreme
Controller of all that relates to man, then the similarities

no less than the differences of men find their allotted



6 1942 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

place in the fixed order of being, of values, and hence also

of morality.

When, however, this foundation is removed, there is

a dangerous lack of cohesion in the various spheres of

culture; the frontier of true values becomes uncertain

and shifting even to the point where mere external fac-

tors, and often blind instincts come to determine, ac-

cording to the prevalent fashion of the day, who is to have

control of this or that direction. After the fateful econ-

omy of the past decades, during which the lives of all

citizens were subordinated to the stimulus of gain, there

now succeeds another and no less fateful policy which,

while it considers everybody and everything with refer-

ence to the State, excludes all thought of ethics or re-

ligion. This is a fatal masquerade, a fatal error. It is

calculated to bring about incalculable consequences for

social life, which is never nearer to losing its noblest

prerogatives than when it thinks it can deny or forget

with impunity the eternal source of its own dignity:

God.

Reason, enlightened by faith, assigns to individuals

and to particular societies in the social organization a

definite and exalted place. It knows, to mention only

the most important, that the whole political and economic

activity of the State is directed to the permanent reali-

zation of the common good. It is to create those external

conditions which are needed for the mass of the citizens,

to bring their natural virtues to maturity, to fulfill their

office and develop fully their material, intellectual and

religious life—in so far as the family, on the one hand,
and other associations to which nature has given pre-

cedence over the State, on the other hand, may be physi-

cally and morally insufficient for their needs—that God's
redeeming will has not established another and universal

society within the Church to direct the human individual

and bring him to the attaining of his supernatural des-

tiny. In a conception of society which is pervaded and

sanctioned by religious thought, the influence of eco-



OF POPE PIUS XII 7

nomics and of every other sphere of cultural activity rep-

resents a universal and most exalted center of activity,

very rich in its variety and coherent in its harmony, in

which men’s intellectual equality and diversity of occu-

pation come into their own and secure adequate expres-

sion.

When this is not so work is depreciated, and the

worker is belittled.

Juridical Order of Society and Its Aims

That social life, such as God willed it, may attain its

scope, it needs a juridical order to support it from with-

out, to defend and protect it. The functions of this

juridical order is not to dominate but to serve, to help

the development and increase of society’s vitality in the

rich multiplicity of its ends, leading all the individual

energies to their perfection in peaceful competition, and

defending them with appropriate and honest means

against all that may militate against their full evolution.

Such an order, that it may safeguard the equilibrium,

the safety and the harmony of society, has also the power

of coercion against those who only by this means can be

held within the noble discipline of social life. But in the

just fulfillment of this right, an authority which is truly

worthy of the name will always be painfully conscious of

its responsibility in the sight of the Eternal Judge, before

Whose Tribunal every wrong judgment, and especially

every revolt against the order established by God, will

receive without fail its sanction and its condemnation.

The precise, bedrock, basic rules that govern society

cannot be prejudiced by the intervention of human

agency. They can be denied, overlooked, despised, trans-

gressed, but they can never be overthrown with legal

validity. It is true indeed that, as time goes on, condi-

tions of life change. But there is never a complete break

or a complete discontinuity between the law of yesterday

and that of today, between the disappearance of old



8 1942 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

powers and constitutions and the appearance of a new

order.

In any case, whatever be the change or transforma-

tion, the scope of every social life remains identical,

sacred, obligatory: it is the development of the personal

values of man as the image of God ; and the obligation re-

mains with every member of the human family to realize

his unchangeable destiny, whosoever be the legislator

and the authority whom he obeys.

In consequence, there always remains, too, his inalien-

able right, which no opposition can nullify—a right which
must be respected by friend and foe—^to a legal order and
practice which appreciate and understand that it is their

essential duty to serve the common good.

The juridical order has, besides, the high and difficult

scope of insuring harmonious relations both between in-

dividuals and between societies, and within these. This

scope will be reached if legislators will abstain from fol-

lowing those perilous theories and practices, so harmful

to communities and to their spirit of union, which derive

their origin and promulgation from false postulates.

Among such postulates We must count the juridical
positivism which attributes a deceptive majesty to the

setting up of purely human laws, and which leaves the

way open for a fatal divorce of law from morality
;
there

is, besides, the conception which claims for particular

nations, or races, or classes, the juridical instinct as the

final imperative and the norm from which there is no

appeal; finally, there are those various theories which,

differing among themselves, and deriving from opposite

ideologies, agree in considering the State, or a group

which represents it, as an absolute and supreme entity,

exempt from control and from criticism even when its

theoretical and practical postulates result in, and offend

by, their open denial of essential tenets of the human

and Christian conscience.

Anyone who considers with an open and penetrating



OF POPE PIUS XII 9

mind the vital connection between social order and a

genuine juridical order, and who is conscious of the fact

that internal order in all its complexity depends on the

predominance of spiritual forces, on the respect of

human dignity in oneself and in others, on the love of

society and of its God-given ends, cannot wonder at the

sad effects of juridical conceptions which, far from the

royal road of truth, proceed on the insecure ground of

materialist postulates. But he will realize at once the

urgent need of a return to a conception of law which is

spiritual and ethical, serious and profound, vivified by the

warmth of true humanity and illumined by the splendor

of the Christian Faith, which bids us seek in the juridical

order an outward refraction of the social order willed by

God, a luminous product of the spirit of man which is in

turn the image of the Spirit of God.

On this organic conception which alone is living, in

which the noblest humanity and the most genuine Chris-

tian spirit fiourish in harmony, there is marked the Scrip-

ture thought, expounded by the great Aquinas: Opus

Justitiae Pa^—The work of justice shall be peace—

a

thought which is as applicable to the internal as to the

external aspect of social life. It admits of neither con-

trast nor alternative such as expressed in the disjunction,

love or right, but the fruitful synthesis, love and right.

In the one as in the other, since both radiate from the

same Spirit of God, We read the program and the seal of
the human spirit

;
they complement one another, give each

other life and support, walk hand in hand along the road

of concord and pacification, while right clears the way

for love and love makes right less stern, and gives it a

higher meaning. Both elevate human life to that social

atmosphere where, even amid the failings, the obstacles

and the difficulties of this earth a fraternal community

of life is made possible.

But once let the baneful spirit of materialist ideas

predominate; let the urge for power and for predomi-



10 1942 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

nance take in its rough hands the direction of affairs;

you shall then find its disruptive effects appearing daily

in greater measure; you shall see love and justice dis-

appear, all this as the sad foretaste of the catastrophies

that menace society when it abandons God.

Living Together in Tranquillity

The second fundamental element of peace, towards

which every human society tends almost instinctively, is

tranquillity.

0 blessed tranquillity, thou hast nothing in common

with the spirit of holding fixedly and obstinately, unre-

lentingly and with childish stubborness, to things as they

are
;
nor yet with the reluctance—child of cowardice and

selfishness—^to put one's mind to the solution of problems
and questions which the passage of time and the succes-

sion of generations, with their different needs and prog-

ress, make actual, and bring up as burning questions of

the day. But, for a Christian who is conscious of his

responsibilities even towards the least of his brethren,

there is no such thing as slothful tranquillity; nor is

there question of flight, but of struggle, of action against

every inaction and desertion in the great spiritual com-

bat where the stakes are the construction, nay the very

soul, of the society of tomorrow.

Harmony Between Tranquillity and Activity

In the mind of Aquinas, tranquillity and feverish ac-

tivity are not opposed, but rather form a well-balanced

pair for him who is inspired by the beauty and the

urgency of the spiritual foundations of society, and of the

nobility of its ideals. To you, young people, who are

wont to turn your backs on the past, and to rely on the

future for your aspirations and your hopes. We address
Ourselves with ardent love and fatherly anxiety; en-

thusiasm and courage do not of themselves suffice, if they

be not, as they should be, placed in the service of good

and of a spotless cause.



OF POPE PIUS XII 11

It is vain to agitate, to weary yourselves, to bustle

about without ever resting in God and His eternal law.

You must be inspired with the conviction that you are

fighting for truth, that you are sacrificing in the cause of

truth your own tastes and energies, wishes and sacri-

fices; that you are fighting for the eternal laws of God,

for the dignity of the human person, and for the attain-

ment of its destiny.

When mature men and young men, while remaining

always at anchor in the sea of the eternally active tran-

quillity of GckI, coordinate their differences of tempera-

ment and activity in a genuine Christian spirit, then if

the propelling element is joined to the refraining element,

the natural differences between the generations will never

become dangerous, and will even conduce vigorously to

the enforcement of the eternal laws of God in the chang-

ing course of times and of conditions of life.

The World of Labor

In one field of social life, where for a whole century

there was agitation and bitter conflict, there is today a

calm, at least on the surface. We speak of the vast and
evergrowing world of labor, of the immense army of

workers, of breadwinners and dependents. If we con-

sider the present with its wartime exigencies, as an ad-

mitted fact, then this calm may be called a necessary and

reasonable demand; but if we look at the present situa-

tion in the light of justice, and with reference to a legiti-

mately regulated labor movement, then the tranquillity

\v\W remain only apparent, until the scope of such a move-

ment be attained.

Always moved by religious motives, the Church has

condemned the various forms of Marxist Socialism; and

she condemns them today, because it is her permanent

right and duty to safeguard men from currents of

thought and influences that jeopardize their external sal-

vation. But the Church cannot ignore or overlook the

fact that the worker, in his efforts to better his lot, is op-



12 1942 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

posed by a machinery which is not only not in accordance

with nature, but is at variance with God's plan and with

the purpose He had in creating the goods of earth. In

spite of the fact that the ways they followed were and are

false and to be condemned, what man, and specially what

priest or Christian, could remain deaf to the cries that

rise from the depths and call for justice and a spirit of

brotherly collaboration in a world ruled by a just God?

Such silence would be culpable and unjustifiable before

God, and contrary to the inspired teaching of the Apostle,

who, while he inculcates the need of resolution in the

fight against error, also knows that we must be full of

sympathy for those who err, and open-minded in our un-

derstanding of their aspirations, hopes and motives.

When He blessed our first parents, God said: “In-

crease and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it."

And to the first father of a family, he said later : “In the

sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread."

The dignity of the human person, then, requires

normally as a natural foundation of life the right to the

use of the goods of the earth. To this right corresponds

the fundamental obligation to grant private ownership of

property, if possible, to all. Positive legislation regulat-

ing private ownership may change and more or less re-

strict its use. But if legislation is to play its part in the

pacification of the community, it must prevent the

worker, who is or will be a father of a family, from

being condemned to an economic dependence and slavery

which is irreconciliable with his rights as a person.

Whether this slavery arises from the exploitation of

private capital or from the power of the state, the result

is the same. Indeed, under the pressure of a state which

dominates all and controls the whole field of public and

private life, even going into the realm of ideas and beliefs

and of conscience, this lack of liberty can have the more

serious consequences, as experience shows and proves.



OF POPE PIUS XII 13

Five Fundamental Points for the Order and

Pacification of Human Society

Anyone who considers in the light of reason and of

faith the foundations and the aims of social life, which

we have traced in broad outline, and contemplates them

in their purity and moral sublimity, and in their benefits

in every sphere of life, cannot but be convinced of the

powerful contribution to order and pacification which

efforts directed towards great ideals and resolved to face

difficulties, could present, or better, could restore to a

world which is internally unhinged, when once they had

thrown down the intellectual and juridical barriers,

created by prejudice, errors, indifference, and by a long

tradition of secularization of thought, feeling, action

which succeeded in detaching and subtracting the earthly

city from the light and force of the City of God.

Today, as never before, the hour has come for repara-

tion, for rousing the conscience of the world from the

hea\T torpor into which the drugs of false ideas, widely

diffused, have sunk it. This is all the more so because

in this hour of material and moral disintegration the ap-

preciation of the emptiness and inconsistency of every

purely human order is beginning to disillusion even those

w’ho, in days of apparent happiness, were not conscious

of the need of contact with the eternal in themselves or in

society, and did not look upon its absence as an essential

defect in their constitutions. What was clear to the

Christian, who in his deeply founded faith was pained

by the ignorance of others, is now presented to us in

dazzling clearness by the din of appalling catastrophe

wffiich the present upheaval brings to man and which por-

trays all the terrifying lineaments' of a general judgment

even for the tepid, the indifferent, the frivolous. It is

indeed an old truth which comes out in ever new forms

and thunders through the ages and through the nations

from the mouth of the Prophet: **A11 that forsake thee

shall be confounded; they wffio depart from thee shall



14 1942^ CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

be written in the earth; because they have forsaken the

Lord, the Vein of Living Waters.”

The call of the moment is not lamentation but action

;

not lamentation over what has been, but reconstruction

of what is to arise and must arise for the good of

society. It is for the best and most distinguished mem-

bers of the Christian family, filled with the enthusiasm of

Crusaders, to unite in the spirit of truth, justice and

love to the call : God wills it, ready to serve, to sacrifice

themselves, like the Crusaders of old.

If the issue was then the liberation of the land hal-

lowed by the life of the Incarnate Word of God, the call

today is, if We may so express Ourselves, to traverse the
sea of errors of our day and to march on to free the holy

land of the spirit, which is destined to sustain in its

foundations the unchangeable norms and laws on which

will arise a social construction of solid internal con-

sistency.

With this lofty purpose before Us, We turn from the
crib of the Prince of Peace, confident that His grace is

diffused in all hearts, to you, beloved children, who recog-

nize and adore in Christ your Saviour; We turn to all
those who are united with Us at least by the bond of faith

in God; We turn, finally, to all those who would be free
of doubt and error, and who desire light and guidance;

and We exhort you with suppliant, paternal insistence
not only to realize fully the dreadful gravity of this hour,

but also to meditate upon the vistas of good and super-

natural benefit which it opens up, and to unite and collabo-

rate towards the renewal of society in spirit and truth.

The essential aim of this necessary and holy crusade

is that the Star of Peace, the Star of Bethlehem, may
shine out again over the whole of mankind in all its bril-

liant splendor and reassuring consolation as a pledge and

augury of a future better, more fruitful and happier.

It is true that the road from night to full day will be

long
;
but of decisive importance are the first steps on the



OF POPE PIUS XII 15

path, the first five milestones of which bear chiselled on

them the following maxims:

1. Dignity and Rights of the Human Person

He who would have the star of peace shine out and

stand over society should cooperate for his part in giv-

ing back to the human person the dignity given to it by

God from the very beginnings
;
should oppose the exces-

sive herding of men, as if they were a mass without a

soul; their economic, social, political, intellectual and

moral inconsistency; their dearth of solid principles and

strong convictions, their surfeit of instinctive sensible

excitement and their fickleness.

He should favor, by every lawful means, in every

sphere of life, social institutions in which a full personal

responsibility is assured and guaranteed both in the

earthly and the eternal order of things.

He should uphold respect for and the practical realiza-

tion of the following fundamental personal rights: the

right to maintain and develop one’s corporal, intellec-

tual and moral life and especially the right to religious

formation and education; the right to worship God in

private and public and to carry on religious works of

charity; the right to marry and to achieve the aim of

married life; the right to conjugal and domestic society;

the right to work as the indispensable means towards the

maintenance of family life
;
the right to free choice of a

state of life, and hence, too, of the priesthood or religious

life; the right to the use of material goods, in keeping

with his duties and social limitations.

2. Defense of Social Unity and Especially of the Family

in Principle

He Who would have the star of peace shine out and

stand over society should reject every form of material-

ism which sees in the people only a herd of individuals

who, divided and without any internal cohesion, are con-

sidered as a mass to be lorded over and treated arbitrar-



16 1942 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

ily
;
he should strive to understand society as an intrinsic

unity, which has grown up and matured under the guid-

ance of Providence, a unity which—within the bounds
assigned to it and according to its own peculiar gifts

—

tends, with the collaboration of the various classes and

professions, towards the eternal and ever new aims of

culture and religion.

He should defend the indissolubility of matrimony;

he should give to the family—^that unique cell of the peo-
ple—space, light and air so that it may attend to its mis-
sion of perpetuating new life, and of educating children

in a spirit corresponding to its own true religious con-

victions, and that it may preserve, fortify and recon-

stitute, according to its powers, its proper economic,

spiritual, moral and juridic unity.

He should take care that the material and spiritual

advantages of the family be shared by the domestic ser-

vants; he should strive to secure for every family a

dwelling where a materially and morally healthy family

life may be seen in all its vigor and worth; he should

take care that the place of work be not so separated from

the home as to make the head of the family and educator

of the children a virtual stranger to his own household;

he should take care above all that the bond of trust and

mutual help should be reestablished between the family

and the public school, that bond which in other times

gave such happy results, but which now has been re-

placed by mistrust where the school, influenced and con-

trolled by the spirit of materialism, corrupts and destroys

what the parents have instilled into the minds of the

children.

3. Dignity and Prerogatives of Labor

He who would have the star of peace shine out and

stand over society should give to work the place assigned

to it by God from the beginning.

As an indispensable means towards gaining over the

world that mastery which God wishes, for His glory, all



OF POPE PIUS XII 17

work has an inherent dignity and at the same time a

close connection with the perfection of the person; this

is the noble dignity and privilege of work which is not in

any way cheapened by the fatigue and the burden, which

have to be borne as the effect of original sin, in obedience

and submission to the will of God.

Those who are familiar with the great Encyclicals of

Our predecessors and Our Own previous messages know
well that the Church does not hesitate to draw the prac-

tical conclusions which are derived from the moral nobil-

ity of work, and to give them all the support of her au-

thority. These exigencies include, besides a just wage

which covers the needs of the worker and his family, the

conservation and perfection of a social order which will

make possible an assured, even if modest, private prop-

erty for all classes of society, which will promote higher

education for the children of the working class who are

especially endowed with intelligence and good will, will

promote the care and the practice of the social spirit in

one’s immediate neighborhood, in the district, the prov-

ince, the people and the nation, a spirit which, by smooth-

ing over friction arising from privileges or class inter-

ests removes from the workers the sense of isolation

through the assuring experience of a genuinely human,

and fraternally Christian, solidarity.

The progress and the extent of urgent social reforms

depend on the economic possibilities of single nations. It

is only through an intelligent and generous sharing of

forces between the strong and the weak that it will be

possible to effect a universal pacification in such wise as

not to leave behind centers of conflagration and infec-

tion from which new disasters may come. There are

evident signs which go to show that, in the ferment of

all the prejudices and feelings of hate, those inevitable

but lamentable offspring of the war psychosis, there is

still aflame in the peoples the consciousness of their inti-

mate mutual dependence for good or for evil, nay, that

this consciousness is more alive and active.



18 1942 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

Is it not true that deep thinkers see ever more clearly

in the renunciation of egoism and national isolation the

'way to general salvation, ready as they are to demand of

their peoples a heavy participation in the sacrifices neces-

sary for social well-being in other peoples ?

May this Christmas Message of Ours, addressed to all
those who are animated by a good will and a generous

heart, encourage and increase the legions of these social

crusades in every nation. And may God deign to give to
their peaceful cause the victory of which their noble en-

terprise is worthy.

4. The Rehabilitation of Juridic Order

He who would have the star of peace shine out and

stand over social life should collaborate towards a com-

plete rehabilitation of the juridical order.

The juridic sense of today is often altered and over-

turned by the profession and the practice of a positivism

and a utilitarianism which are subjected and bound to

the service of determined groups, classes and movements,

whose programs direct and determine the course of legis-

lation and the practices of the courts.

The cure for this situation becomes feasible when we

awaken again the consciousness of a juridical order rest-

ing on the supreme dominion of God, and safeguarded

from all human whims
;
a consciousness of an order which

stretches forth its arm, in protection or punishment, over

the unforgettable rights of man and protects them against

the attacks of every human power.

From the juridic order, as willed by God, flows man’s

inalienable right to juridical security, and by this very

fact to a definite sphere of rights, immune from all arbi-

trary attack.

The relations of man to man, of the individual to so-

ciety, to authority, to civil duties ; the relations of society

and of authority to the individual, should be placed on a

firm juridic footing and be guarded, when the need arises,

by the authority of the courts.



OF POPE PIUS XII 19

This supposes (A) a tribunal and a judge who take

their directions from a clearly formulated and defined

right; (B) clear juridical norms which may not be over-

turned by unwarranted appeals to a supposed popular

sentiment or by merely utilitarian considerations; (C)

the recognition of the principle that even the State and

the functionaries and organizations dependent on it are

obliged to repair and to withdraw measures which are

harmful to the liberty, property, honor, progress of

health of the individuals.

5. The Conception of the State According to the

Christian Spirit

He who would have the star of peace shine out and

stand over human society should cooperate towards the

setting up of a State conception and practice founded on

reasonable discipline, exalted kindliness and a responsi-

ble Christian spirit.

He should help to restore the State and its power to

the service of human society, to the full recognition of

the respect due to the human person and his efforts to

attain his eternal destiny.

He should apply and devote himself to dispelling the

errors which aim at causing the State and its authority

to deviate from the path of morality, at severing them

from the eminently ethical bond which links them to in-

dividual and social life, and at making them deny or in

practice ignore their essential dependence on the will of

the Creator. He should work for the recognition and

diffusion of the truth which teaches, even in matters of

this world, that the deepest meaning, the ultimate moral

basis and the universal validity of '‘reigning” lies in

“serving.”

Considerations of the World War and the

Renovation of Society

Beloved children, may God grant that while you listen

to Our voice your heart may be profoundly stirred and



20 194^ CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

moved by the deeply felt seriousness, the loving solicitude,

the unremitting insistence, with which we drive home

these thoughts, which are meant as an appeal to the con-

science of the world, and a rallying-cry to all those who
are ready to ponder and weigh the grandeur of their

mission and responsibility by the vastness of this uni-

versal disaster.

A great part of mankind, and, let Us not shirk from
saying it, not a few who call themselves Christians, have

to some extent their share in the collective responsibility

for the growth of error and for the harm and the lack

of moral fibre in the society of today.

What is this world war, with all its attendant circum-

stances, whether they be remote or proximate causes, its

progress and material, legal and moral effects? What

is it but the crumbling process, not expected, perhaps,

by the thoughtless but seen and deprecated by those

whose gaze penetrated into the realities of a social order

which—behind a deceptive exterior or the mask of con-
ventional shibboleths—hid its mortal weakness and its
unbridled lust for gain and power?

That which in peacetime lay coiled up, broke loose at

the outbreak of war in a sad succession of acts at vari-

ance with the human and Christian sense. International

agreements to make war less inhuman by confining it to

the combatants, to regulate the procedure of occupation

and the imprisonment of the conquered remained in

various places a dead letter. And who can see the end

of this progressive demoralization of the people, who can

wish to watch impotently this disastrous progress ?

Should they not rather, over the ruins of a social order

which has given such tragic proof of its ineptitude as a

factor for the good of the people, gather together the

hearts of all those who are magnanimous and upright in

the solemn vow not to rest until in all peoples and all

nations of the earth a vast legion shall be formed of

those handfuls of men who, bent on bringing back so-

ciety to its center of gravity, which is the law of God,



OF POPE PIUS XII 21

aspire to the service of the human person and of his

common life ennobled in God?

Mankind owes that vow to the countless dead who

lie buried on the field of battle : the sacrifice of their lives

in fulfillment of their duty is a holocaust offered for a

new and better social order.

Mankind owes that vow to the innumerable sorrowing

host of mothers, widows and orphans who have seen the

light, the solace and the support of their lives wrenched

from them.

Mankind owes that vow to those numberless exiles

whom the hurricane of war has torn from their native

land and scattered in the land of the stranger; who can

make their o^^m the lament of the Prophet: “our inherit-

ance is turned to aliens: our house to strangers.”

Mankind owes that vow to the hundreds of thousands

of persons who, without any fault on their part, some-

times only because of their nationality or race, have been

consigned to death or to a slow decline.

Mankind owes that vow to the many thousands of

non-combatants, women, children, sick and aged, from

whom aerial warfare—whose horrors we have from the
beginning frequently denounced—has, without discrimi-
nation or through inadequate precautions, taken life,

goods, health, home, charitable refuge, or house of prayer.

Mankind owes that vow to the flood of tears and bit-

terness, to the accumulation of sorrow and suffering,

emanating from the murderous ruin of the dreadful con-

flict and cr>dng to heaven to send down the Holy Spirit

to liberate the world from the inundation of violence and

terror. And where could you with greater assurance and

trust and with more efficacious faith place this vow for

the renewal of society than at the feet of the “Desired of

all Nations” Who lies before us in the crib with all the

charm of His sweet humanity as a babe, but also in the

dynamic attraction of His incipient mission as Redeemer?

Where could this noble and holy crusade for the cleans-

ing and renewal of society have a more significant



22 1942 CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

consecration or find a more potent inspiration than at

Bethlehem, where the new Adam appears in the ador-
able mystery of the Incarnation? For it is at His foun-

tains of truth and grace that mankind should find the

water of life if it is not to perish in the desert of this

life; ''of His fullness we all have received/' His fullness

of grace and truth fiows as freely today as it has for

twenty centuries on the world. His light can overcome

the darkness, the rays of His love can conquer the icy

egoism which holds so many back from becoming great

and conspicuous in their higher life.

Do you, crusader-volunteers of a distinguished new

society, lift up the new call for moral and Christian re-

birth, declare war on the darkness which comes from

deserting God, on the coldness that comes from strife be-

tween brothers. It is a fight for the human race, which

is gravely ill and must be healed in the name of con-

science ennobled by Christianity.

Invocation of the Redeemer of the World

May Our blessing and Our paternal good wishes and

encouragement go with your generous enterprise, and

may they remain with all those who do not shirk hard

sacrifices—those weapons which are more potent than
any steel to combat the evil from which society suffers.

Over your crusade for a social, human and Christian

ideal may there shine out as a consolation and an inspi-

ration the star that stands over the Grotto of Bethlehem,

the first and the perennial star of the Christian Era.

From the sign of it every faithful heart drew, draws and

ever will draw strength : "If armies in camp should stand

against me, my heart shall not fear.” Where that star
shines, there is Christ. "With Him for leader we shall

not wander; through Him let us go to Him, that with

the Child that is born today we may rejoice forever.”



OF POPE PIUS XII 23

Pope Pius Dedicates the World

TO THE

Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin

Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, Refuge of the Hu-

man Race, Victress in all God's battles, we humbly pros-

trate ourselves before thy throne, confident that we shall

receive mercy, grace and bountiful assistance and pro-

tection in the present calamity, not through our own

inadequate merits, but solely through the great goodness

of thy Maternal Heart.

To thee, to thy Immaculate Heart in this, humanity's

tragic hour, we consign and consecrate ourselves in union

not only with the Mystical Body of thy Son, Holy Mother

Church, now in such suffering and agony in so many

places and sorely tried in so many ways, but also with

the entire world, torn by fierce strife, consumed in a fire

of hate, victim of its own wickedness.

May the sight of the widespread material and moral
destruction, of the sorrows and anguish of countless

fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, brothers and

sisters, and innocent children, of the great number of

lives cut off in the flower of youth, of the bodies mangled

in horrible slaughter, and of the tortured and agonized

souls in danger of being lost eternally, move thee to com-

passion !

0 Mother of Mercy obtain peace for us from God
and above all procure for us those graces which prepare,

establish and assure the peace!

Queen of Peace pray for us and give to the world

now at war the peace for which all peoples are longing,

peace in the truth, justice and charity of Christ. Give

peace to the warring nations and to the souls of men,

that in the tranquillity of order the Kingdom of God may
prevail.

Extend thy protection to the infidels and to all those

still in the shadow of death; give them peace and grant

that on them, too, many shine the sun of truth, that they



24 1942' CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

may unite with us in proclaiming before the one and

only Saviour of the World ‘'Glory to God in the highest

and peace to men of good will.’^
Give peace to the peoples separated by error or by

discord, and especially to those who profess such singular

devotion to thee and in whose homes an honored place

was ever accorded thy venerated icon (today perhaps

often kept hidden to await better days) : bring them

back to the one fold of Christ under the one true shepherd.

Obtain peace and complete freedom for the Holy

Church of God
;
stay the spreading flood of modern pa-

ganism; enkindle in the faithful the love of purity, the

practice of the Christian life, and an apostolic zeal, so

that the servants of God may increase in merit and in
number.

Lastly, as the Church and the entire human race

were consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so that in

reposing all hope in Him, He might become for them the

sign and pledge of victory and salvation; so we in like

manner consecrate ourselves forever also to thee and to

thy Immaculate Heart, Our Mother and Queen, that thy

love and patronage may hasten the triumph of the King-

dom of God and that all nations, at peace with one an-

other and with God, may proclaim thee blessed and with

thee may raise their voices to resound from pole to pole

in the chant of the everlasting Magniflcat of glory, love

and gratitude to the Heart of Jesus, where alone they can

find truth and peace.

The Holy Father has granted a partial indulgence of

three years to the faithful for each devout recitation of

the prayer, and a plenary indulgence obtainable once a

month, under the usual conditions of Confession and

Communion, for the daily recitation of the prayer.