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Bansdell Incorporated

Washington, D. O.



PIUS XII

AND

PEACE

1939-1943

Excerpts from Selected Messages

NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE

1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N. W.

Washington, D. C.



Contents

I. First Message to the World, March 3, 1939 1

II. "To Those in Power and to Their Peoples,” August

24, 1939 2

III. Christmas Message, 1939 4

IV. Appeal for Peace with Justice, November 24, 1940. 11

V. Christmas Message, 1940 16

VI. Easter Message, 1941 20

VII. Address on Fiftieth Anniversary of ^^The Condition

of Labor/’ June 1, 1941 24

VIII. Divine Providence in Human Events, June 29, 1941 34

IX. Christmas Message, 1941 39_

X. Episcopal Silver Jubilee Address, May 13, 1942 53

XI. Dedication of World to Immaculate Heart of Mary,

November 1, 1942 56

XII. Christmas Message, 1942 58



Preface

W HEN Pope Pius XII was called to the throne of Peteron March 2, 1939, the threat of war hung heavily
over the world. Because war and peace are basically moral

issues; because war entails so many evils and so much suffering

for the innocent whose common father he had become, the

question of international peace was for the new Pope a matter

of supreme concern. He designated "Peace the 'Work of

Justice” as the aim of his Pontificate. The Holy Father’s

attempts to avert the war by moral appeals did not succeed,

but he has never relaxed his efforts to get an acceptance by

the nations of those principles without which there can be

no hope of peace though the war be won.

The purpose of the present collection is to show in some

measure the continuity of that effort and to make permanently

and easily available to the American public the most important

parts of messages which analyze the causes of the world’s

anguish and offer proposals for the reign of justice and peace

in social and international relations.

Many relevant discourses and writings have had to be

omitted for reasons of space. A complete record will be found
in the comprehensive volume on the Popes and peace to be

issued soon by the Bishops’ Committee on the Pope’s Peace

Points.

The Encyclical Sti^mmi Pontificafus (Darkness Over the

World)
,
which treats of totalitarianism and nationalism, is not

included since it is elsewhere available in inexpensive print-

ings.

Among the pronouncements quoted are the four famous

Christmas messages with their specific proposals, which have

come to be regarded as the "Pope’s Peace Program,” and the

Pentecost address, delivered on the fiftieth anniversary of the

issuance of "The Condition of Labor” which advances moral

directives for the ordering of economic and social life so as to

secure and maintain peace. Included also are: the moving

appeal for trust in God, for courage in adversity and for faith

in the triumph of good over evil contained in "Divine Provi-



dence in Human Events”; appeals to belligerents for humane

treatment of civilian populations; and the text of the dedica-

tion of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Today the people of the United States look forward to a

better world than the one which is now crumbling and being

blasted away. They are sincerely and arduously searching for

the bases upon which they may help to build a just and en-

during peace. In the words of Our Holy Father here pre-

sented they will find the necessary guides to bring back "so-

ciety to its center of gravity which is the law of God.”

iX/E 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 supernatural benefit which it opens up,

and to unite and collaborate towards the renewal

of society in spirit and truth . (Christmas

Message, 1942.)



PIUS xn AND PEACE

1939-1943

I

First Message to the World, March 3
,
1939

(Excerpts from Radio Address DUM GRAVISSIMUM)

"To this Our paternal message We will add a hope and
invitation to peace. We speak of that peace which Our
predecessor of blessed memory urged so insistently upon men,

for which he invoked such ardent prayers, and for which he

made to God a spontaneous offer of his life. We speak of
that peace which is the sublime gift of heaven, the desire of

all good souls and the fruit of charity and justice.

"We invite all to the peace of a tranquil conscience in

friendship with God, to the peace of families united and

harmonized by much love of Christ and, finally, to a peace

between nations through fraternal help, reciprocal and loving

collaboration, and cordial understanding for the superior in-

terests of the great human family under the eyes and pro-

tection of Divine Providence.

"In these fearsome and difficult hours, while so many

difficulties seem to oppose the attainment of that peace which

is the most profound aspiration of all hearts. We raise to Our
Lord a special prayer for all those who are entrusted with the

highest honors and the heaviest burden of guiding their

peoples in ways of prosperity and progress.

"Here, beloved Cardinals, venerable brethren, and beloved

children, is the first wish overflowing from the palpitating

fatherliness with which God has enkindled Our heart.

"Before Us is a vision of the enormous evils afflicting the

world, for the correction of which may Our Blessed Lord send

help to Us, unarmed but confident. With St. Paul, we



2 Pius XII and Peace

repeat: 'Use Us.’ We are sure that you Our children, Our
brothers, will not render this Our wish in vain. After the

Grace of God, it is in your good will that Our soul so greatly

trusts.”

II

Radio Plea "To Those in Power and to Their Peoples”

August 24
,
1939

{"Nothing Is Lost with Peace; All May Be Lost with War”)

"Once again a critical hour strikes for the great human

family— an hour of tremendous deliberations, toward which
Our heart cannot be indifferent and from which Our spiritual

authority, coming to Us from God to lead souls in the ways

of justice and peace, must not hold itself aloof.

"Behold Us, then, with all of you who this moment are

carrying the burden of so great a responsibility, in order that

through Our voice you may hear the voice of that Christ

from Whom the world received the most exalted example of
living, and in Whom millions and millions of souls repose
their trust— in a crisis in which His word alone is capable
of mastering all the tumultuous disturbances of the earth.

"Behold Us with you leaders of peoples, men of state and

men of arms, writers, orators of the radio and of the public

rostrum, and all those others who have the power to influence

the thought and action of their fellow men for whose destiny

they are responsible.

"We, armed only with the word of truth, and standing

above all public disputes and passions, speak to you in the

Name of God, from Whom all paternity in heaven and earth

is named; in the Name of Jesus Christ Our Lord, Who

desired that all men be brothers; in the Name of the Holy

Ghost, the Gift of God Most High, the inexhaustible source

of love in the hearts of men.

"Today, notwithstanding Our repeated exhortations and

Our very particular interest, the fear of bloody international

conflict becomes more excruciating. Today when the tension

of minds seems to have arrived at such a pass as to make

an outbreak of the awful scourge of war appear imminent.

We direct, with paternal feeling, a new and more heartfelt



Pius XII and Peace 3

appeal to those in power and to their peoples— to the former
that, laying aside accusations, threats and causes of mutual

distrust, they may attempt to resolve their present differences

with the sole means suitable thereto, namely by reciprocal

and trusting agreements; to the latter that, in calm tran-

quillity, without disordered agitation, they may encourage

the peaceful efforts of those who govern them.

"It is by force of reason, and not by force of arms, that

justice makes progress, and empires which are not founded

on justice are not blessed by God.

“Statesmanship emancipated from morality betrays those

very ones who would have it so.

"The danger is imminent, but there is yet time. Nothing

is lost with peace; all may be lost with war.

"Let men return to mutual understanding! Let them

begin negotiations anew, conferring with good-will and

with respect for reciprocal rights. Then will they find that

to sincere and conscientious negotiations an honorable solution

is never precluded. They will feel a sense of greatness in

the true sense of the word if, by silencing the voices of

passion— be it collective or private— and by leaving to
reason its rightful rule, they will have spared the blood of

their fellow men and saved their countries from ruin.

"May the Almighty grant that the voice of this Father

of the Christian family, of this Servant of Servants, who

bears amongst men, unworthily indeed but nevertheless really,

the person, the voice and the authority of Jesus Christ, find

in the minds and hearts of men a ready and willing reception.

May the strong hear Us that they may not become weak

through injustice. May the powerful hear Us if they desire

that their power be not destruction, but rather protection

for their peoples and a safeguard to tranquillity in public

order and in their labor. 'We beseech them by the Blood of

Christ, Whose conquering force in the world was Flis mildness

in life and in death. And beseeching them. We know and
feel that We have with Us all those who are upright of
heart, all those who hunger and thirst after justice, all

those who already suffer every sorrow through the evils of

life. We have with Us the hearts of mothers, which beat
as one with Ours; of fathers, who would be obliged to

abandon their families; of the lowly, who labor and do



4 Pius XII and Peace

not understand; o£ the innocent, upon whom weighs heavily

the awful threat; of the young men, generous knights of

purest and noblest ideals. And with Us also is the soul of

this ancient Europe, which was the product of Faith and

Christian genius.

"With Us, all humanity seeks justice, bread and freedom;

not steel, which kills and destroys. With Us is that Christ

Who has made His solemn commandment, love of one’s
brother, the very substance of His religion and the promise

of salvation for individuals and for nations.

"Recalling finally that human efforts are of no avail

without Divine assistance. We invite all to raise their eyes to
Heaven and to beseech the Lord with fervent prayers that

His Divine grace descend in abundance upon this world in its

upheaval, that it placate dissensions, reconcile hearts and

evoke the resplendent dawn of a more serene future. To

this end, and with this hope. We impart to all, from Our
heart. Our paternal benediction.”

Ill

Christmas Message

December 24, 1939

(This -message contains the so-called *^Tive Toint "Peace Program” of Pope

Pius XII, and an announcement of the appointment of the Honorable Myron

C. Taylor as President Roosevelt's personal representative to His Holiness.)

"Amidst the strife and tumult of varied world happenings,

imperturbability of spirit is that real joy which resides in the

power to withstand the storm through trust in God. We
unite with Christ, Principal and Fount of every grief and joy.

"Where others lose themselves, where the waters of affliction

and desperation submerge souls in cruelty, those who trust in

Christ can do everything and, in harmony with order and

the justification and magnificence of God, rise above the

disorders and storms of the world with equal courage and

order.

"The indescribable disaster of war, which Pope Pius XI,

with profound and extreme regret, foresaw and with the

indomitable energy of his noble and most high spirit wished



Pius XII and Peace 5

by all means to avert, has broken out and is now a tragic

reality.

"Before this tremendous war, an immense bitterness over-

comes our souls, sad and troubled that this holy Feast of

Christmas, this Feast of the Prince of Peace, must be cele-

brated to the funereal roar of cannon and under terror of

flying war missiles, in the midst of menaces and dangers of

armed navies.

"It seems that the world has forgotten Christ’s message

of peace—the voice of reason. We of the Christian brother-
hood have been obliged to see a series of irreconcilable acts,

irreconcilable both in regard to international rights and to

principles of national rights and to the most elemental senti-

ments of humanity, acts which show in what chaotic and

vicious circles has the sense of justice been deviated from

useful consideration.

"In this category are premeditated aggressions against a

small, laborious, and peaceful people on the pretext of a threat

which neither exists, nor is desired, nor is possible.

"Atrocities and illegal use of means of destruction even

against non-combatants, refugees, old people, women and

children and disregard of human dignity, Uberty and life

are acts which cry for the vengeance of God—as does ever
more extensive and methodical anti-Christian and even athe-

istic propaganda, mostly among young people.

"To preserve the Church and her mission among men from

every contact with such anti-Christian spirit is Our duty,

and this is also Our sacred and intimate wish as the Father

and Teacher of the Faith.

"With anguished worry We are forced to contemplate the
accumulating spiritual ruin before Us—accumulating because
of confusion of ideas which, more or less voluntarily, shades

and distorts truth in the souls of many people, whether they

be involved in war or not.

"We, therefore, must regard with alarm the tremendous

amount of work that will be necessary when a world tired

of fighting wishes to restore peace—to break down the walls
of aversion and hatred which have been built up in the heat

of the strife.

"Aware of the excesses to which that way of life leads,

and of the political doctrines and acts which ignore the laws



6 Pius XII and Peace

of God, when the disputes became critical We attempted,
as you know, with every endeavor and to tht last moment,

to prevent the worst and to persuade men in whose hands

power lay and whose shoulders bore the grave responsibility,

to abstain from armed conflict and so to save the world from

incalculable disaster.

"These efforts, and those coming from other influential

and reispected sources, failed to produce the hoped-for effect,

chiefly because of deep and apparently irremovable distrust—
distrust which had grown in recent years and which had

raised insurmountable spiritual barriers.

"The problems were not unsolvable, but this distrust, origi-

nating in a series of particular circumstances, stood in the

way with almost irresistible force and to such an extent that

there no longer was hope for promises made or for the main-

tenance of possible amicable conventions.

"Finally, every effort to promote a peaceful solution became

hopeless. There was nothing left but to try to lighten the

burdens of war, although the effort to bring Christian charity

to regions where the most urgent need of it would be felt

was obstructed by difficulties not yet overcome.

"With indescribable anguish. We watched this war initiated
and proceeding in such unusual circumstances.

"If up to now—excepting the bloodstained soil of Poland
and Finland—the number of victims may be considered fewer
than was feared, the total sorrows and sacrifices have reached

such a point as to inspire great anxiety in those concerned

with the future economic, social and spiritual condition of

Europe, and not of Europe alone.

"The more the war monster strives for, swallows and allots

itself material means which are placed inexorably at the

service of war needs—mounting from hour to hour—the
more acute becomes the danger, for nations directly or indi-

rectly struck by the conflict, of what We might call perni-
cious anemia, and they are faced with the pressing question:

'How can exhausted or weakened economy, at the end of the

war, find means for economic and social reconstruction among

difficulties which will be enormously increased, and of which

the forces and artifices of disorder, lying in wait, will seek

to make use in the hope of giving the final blow to Christian

Europe?*



Pius XII and Peace 7

"Such consideration of the present and future must cause

much concern to the leaders and sane members of every

people, even in the fever of the war, and cause them to exam-

ine the effects and reflect on the aims and justifiable ends

of war.

"We believe those who with watchful eyes consider these

serious potentialities and the possibility of such an evolution

of events will, notwithstanding war and its horrible accom-

paniments, hold themselves wholly prepared to define clearly,

so far as they themselves are concerned, the fundamental

points of a just and honorable peace at the opportune moment;

and that they would not flatly reject opportunity for nego-

tiations, whenever the occasion presents itself, with the neces-

sary guarantees and security.

"First. A fundamental condition of a just and honorable
peace is to assure the right to life and independence of all

nations, large and small, strong and weak. One nation’s will

to live must never be tantamount to a death sentence for

another. When this equality of rights has been destroyed,
injured or imperilled, the juridical order requires reparation

whose measure and extent are not determined by the sword

or selfish, arbitrary judgment, but by the standards of justice

and reciprocal equity.

"Second. That order, reestablished in such a manner, may

be tranquil and durable—the cardinal principles of true
peace—nations must be liberated from the heavy slavery of
the race for armaments and from the danger that material

force, instead of serving to protect rights, become the tyran-

nical violator of them.

"Conclusions of peace which failed to attribute funda-

mental importance to disarmament, mutually accepted, or-

ganic and progressive both in practice and spirit, and failed

to carry out this disarmament loyally, would sooner or later

reveal their inconsistency and lack of vitality.

"Third. In any reordering of international community

life it would conform to the rules of human wisdom for all

parties concerned to examine the consequences of the gaps

and deficiencies of the past; and in creating or reconstituting

the international institutions, which have so lofty a mission

and at the same time one that is so difficult and full of the

gravest responsibilities, they should keep present before them



8 Pius XII and Peace

the experiences which poured from the inefiicacy or defective

operation of similar previous projects.

"And, since it is so difficult—one would be tempted to
say almost impossible—for human weakness to foresee every-
thing and assure everything at the time of the drafting of

treaties of peace—^when it is difficult to be entirely free from
passions and bitterness—the establishment of juridical insti-
tutions, which serve to guarantee the loyal and faithful ful-

fillment of terms and, in case of recognized need, to revise

and correct them, is of decisive importance for an honorable

acceptance of a peace treaty and to avoid arbitrary and

unilateral ruptures and interpretations of the terms of these

treaties.

"Fourth. A point which should draw particular attention
if better ordering of Europe is sought, concerns the real needs

and just demands of nations and of peoples as well as of

ethnical minorities: demands which, if not always sufficient

to form a strict right when there are recognized or confirmed

treaties or other juridical titles which oppose them, deserve

at all events benevolent examination to meet them in a peace-

ful way and, where it appears necessary, by means of equitable,

wise and harmonious revision of treaties.

"Once true equilibrium among nations is thus brought

back and the basis of mutual trust is reestablished, many of

the incentives to resort to violence would be removed.

"Fifth; But even better and more complete settlements

will be imperfect and condemned to ultimate failure, if those

who guide the destinies of peoples, and the peoples themselves,

do not allow themselves to be penetrated always more and

more by that spirit from which alone can arise life, authority

and obligation for the dead letter of articles in international

agreements—by that spirit, namely, of intimate, acute respon-
sibility that measures and weighs human statutes according

to the holy, unshakeable rules of Divine Law; by that hunger

and thirst for justice which is proclaimed as a Beatitude in

the Sermon on the Mount, and which has, as a natural pre-

supposition, moral justice; by that universal love which is

the compendium of and most comprehensive term for the

Christian ideal, and therefore throws across also a bridge to

those who have not the benefit of participating in our own

Faith.



Pius XII and Peace 9

"We do not fail to recognize the grave difficulties which

interpose themselves against the accomplishment of the aims

‘which We have traced in broad outlines in a desire to lay
foundations for, to put into effect and to preserve, a just

international peace.

"But if ever there were an aim worthy of the concourse

of noble, generous spirits; if ever there arose a spiritual cru-

sade which with new truth sounded the cry, 'God wills it,’

it is truly that high aim and this crusade—to lead peoples
back from the muddy gulf of material and selfish interest

to the living fountain of Divine Law, which alone is powerful

and gives that morality, nobility and stability of which a lack

has been felt far too long, and which is gravely needed to

repair the damage done to most nations, to humanity and to

those ideals which are at the same time the real ends of peace

based on justice and love.

"We wait for and hope that all those who are united to

Us by the bond of Faith, each at his post within the limits

of his mission, will keep both mind and heart open, so that,

when the hurricane of war ceases and is dispersed, there will

rise up in every nation and among all peoples far-sighted

and pure spirits, animated by courage, who will know how

and will be able to confront the dark instinct of vile ven-

geance with the severe and noble majesty of justice—the
sister of love and companion of all true wisdom.

"Of this justice, which alone can create and assure peace.

We and those who are listening to Us know where to find a
sublime example, intimate impulse and sure promise.

"Let us go to Bethlehem. There we find lying in the

manger the new-born 'Son of Justice, Christ Our God,’ and

by His side the Virgin Mary, the 'Mirror of Justice’ and the

'Queen of Peace,’ with her holy guardian, Joseph, a just man.

Jesus is the awaited of the Gentiles. The Prophets called Him
this and sang His future triumphs.

"
'For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and

the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be

called. Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father

of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.’

"When this Heavenly Child was born, another prince of

peace reigned on the banks of the Tiber and had, with solemn

ceremonies, dedicated an Ara Pacts Augusfae, whose wonder-



10 Pius XII and Peace

ful but broken remains, buried under the ruins of Rome,

have been resurrected in our own days.

"On that altar Augustus made sacrifices to gods who do

not save. It is permissible, however, to think that the true

God and eternal Prince of Peace, Who a few years later
descended among men, heard the petition of that time for

peace and that the Augustan peace anticipated that super-

natural peace which only He can give and which every true

earthly peace must include.

"That supernatural peace is gained not with steel, but with

the wood of the cradle of this Infant Lord of Peace and with

the wood of His future Cross of Death, stained with His

Blood—not the blood of hate and rancor, but that of love
and pardon.

"Let us go then to Bethlehem, to the cave where the New-
born Edng of Peace is heralded by a choir of Angels, and,

kneeling before Him in the name of this troubled and upset
humanity—^in the name of numberless legions without dis-
tinction of race or nation who are bleeding or dying or

plunged into tears and misery or have lost their country

—

let us direct to Him our invitation to peace and good will,

for aid and salvation, with the words which the Church puts

on the lips of its sons in these days in which it prays God

to save all mankind. 'O Emanuel, Our King and Our Law-

maker, the awaited of the Gentiles and their Saviour, come

to save us. Lord Our God.’

"While in this prayer We express Our insatiable desire for

peace in the Spirit of Christ, Mediator of peace between

Heaven and earth, with His kindness and humanity appearing

in our midst, and warmly exhort all faithful Christians to

join with Us in their prayers and sacrifices. We impart to

you, Venerable Brethren, and to all whom you have in your

hearts, to all men of good will, especially all sufferers,

anguished, persecuted, imprisoned and oppressed, of every

region and every country, with an unchanging affection and

as token of grace and consolation and celestial comfort. Our

Apostolic Benediction.

"At the end of this discourse of Ours We do not wish to
deprive you of the joy of announcing to you. Venerable

Brethren and Beloved Sons, that there has arrived this morn-

ing from the Apostolic Delegation in Washington a telegram.



Pius XII and Peace 11

the introductory and essential part of which We are now to

read: *The President, having called Monsignor Spellman,

Archbishop of New York, this morning after a conversation

with him has sent him to me together with Mr. Berle, Assist-

ant Secretary of State, bearing a letter for His Holiness which

I here transcribe literally according to the desire of the Presi-

dent himself. In it the President declares that he is nomi-

nating a representative of the President with the rank of

Extraordinary Ambassador, but without formal title, to the

Holy See. This representative will be the Honorable Myron

Taylor, who will leave for Rome in about a month. The

news will be made officially public tomorrow.’ There follows

the text of the letter in English which will be published in

the Osservafore Romano.

"This is a Christmas Message which could not have been

more welcome to Us since it represents on the part of the

eminent head of a great and powerful nation, a strong and

promising contribution to our desire for the attainment of

a just and honorable peace and for a more effective and wider

effort to alleviate the sufferings of the victims of war. There-

fore we are bound to express here Our felicitations and Our

gratitude for this noble and generous act of President

Roosevelt.”

ly

Radio Appeal for Peace with Justice

November 24
, 1940

(On this day the Universal Church joined with the Holy father in public

prayers for peace)

".
. i But if the cataclysm does not express our spirits, we

feel nonetheless that the present hour is a phase in the solemn

story of humanity predicted by Christ. And you, dear chil-
dren, know how this new and fierce war which lies heavy on
Europe and the world, by necessity weighs down Our heart
and that paternal affection which derives from the office im-

posed on Us by God towards all peoples; for you well know
that sorrow is a child of affection and love.

"Is not Christ’s sorrowful Passion the outcome of His love
for us? ^Sic Deus Dilexit Mundum^: *God so loved the world.’



12 Pius XII and Peace

"During His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which He so

loved, nearing the city and contemplating it, did not the

Divine Redeemer weep over it? And He said; 'If thou also
hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are

to thy peace!’

"This ineffable lament of Our Saviour over Jerusalem could

not but find an echo in the heart of His humble Vicar as he

beholds Europe and the world in brutal conflict. We have
done everything for peace among nations, conscious as We
are that it is Ours to be a servant and minister of peace, bring-

ing the King on high Who makes peace not through the blood
of battlefields, but through the blood of His Cross, both as to

the things that are on earth, and the things that are in Heaven.

"It was an impulse of Our heart that We followed, in striv-
ing for the reestablishment of concord among nations—that
concord that was for a long time upset and now is completely

broken—and that there be set up an order of things more har-
monious, based on that justice which soothes passions, allays

hatreds, quenches rancor and bickerings; an order which would

tend to give to every people in tranquility, in liberty and in

security that portion which belongs to each, of the earthly

sources of prosperity and power, so as to make possible the

fulfillment of the words of the Creator: 'Increase and mul-

tiply, and fill the earth.’

"From the outset of the conflict. Our attention and

thoughts have never ceased to secure, insofar as We could,
that Divine purpose and human aid might be extended to those

whom the clash of arms has caused loss and suffering. 'For

the charity of Christ presseth us.’

"As the Common Father of all that believe in Christ,

shepherd of His immense fold. We count among Our children,
of Our flock, those near and far, the faithful, lost or strayed.

To all are We debtor, to all do We owe love, comfort and
help—to the weak and to the strong, to the miserable and
to the unhappy, to the wise and to the unwise.

"This vale of tears is now so inundated with fresh tears

to be dried on faces of children, mothers, men and aged ones

who feel a sense of cruel abandonment in their loves and

souls, especially in this turbulent hour when the terrible con-

flict, instead of subsiding, goes on to gather new ferocity!



Pius XII and Peace 13

"But if the din of war seems to overcome and drown Our

voice, We turn Our gaze away from earth to Heaven, to the
Father of Mercies and to the God of all comfort. Who contem-

plates all here below and commands the flow of the ocean:

'Hitherto thou shalt come, and shalt go no further, and here

thou shalt break thy swelling waves.’

"To Him beneath Whose hands in the universal order of

events and things the action of man is restless without being

able to evade His provident and ineluctable counsel; to Him

We raise the sorrowing cry of Our heart, imploring from
Him better days for the human race, better dawns and better

sunsets to our days.

"Grant us, O Lord, peace in our days!
"No. Our God is not like the idols of the Gentiles that

have ears and hear not, have hands and feel not, have hearts

and love not. Our God is love, is charity itself; and we have

known and believed in the charity of God toward us: We
have known and believed the charity which God hath to us.

God is charity. This is the mystery of the heart of God, the

great mystery of Christianity.

"God, with that infinite and tender mercy which is over

all His works, will hear us—at the moment and in the man-
ner which He will have disposed—^if we send up to the seat
of His throne with one voice a trusting and fervent prayer

enriched by the humiliation of penance; for it belongs to the

Supreme Excellence of the goodness and charity of God not

only to bestow life and prosperity on all, but also to accede in

His generosity to the pious wishes we express with prayer.

"Has not the Incarnate Son of God called us, in His dis-

ciples, His friends? And is it not a test of friendship that

he who loves wishes to see the desire of the loved one satis-

fied?

"It was for this reason that on the Feast of Christ the King,

under the protection of the glorious Queen of the Rosary,

We called on all the children of the Church to offer public
prayers together with Us today.

"We wished that there might be one immense choir of sup-
pliants answering to Our voice—of every clime, of every
tongue, dress, manner and rite, fired by one and the same

faith, one and the same hope, one and the same love—to turn
with Us their eyes beyond the stars and send their humble sup-



14 Pius XII and Peace

plication for grace and mercy to the throne of the Most High.

"•Behold, My dear children, this altar, this Cross which
dominates it, this Bread and this Chalice, this Tomb on which

We reverently stand, this cornerstone of the Church known
and venerated in the faith of nations! Behold this glorious

center of the altars of the world.

"This is not the bloody Golgotha of Divine mercy and jus-

tice of which the majesty of God is placated and propitiated.

Here, between the wings of celestial cohorts, beneath the gaze

of the Prophets, of the Evangelists, of the Apostles and of

the Saints, is offered a sacrifice of atonement, of the new and

eternal law, where Christ Himself is the Victim of the Father

and renews in this Wonder of Wonders His sacrifice on Cal-

vary of His Body and Blood shed for the remission of sins.

'And not for ours only, but for those of the whole world.’

"Let all those who believe in Him be united then around

Us; and united in spirit with Us who beneath this dome that

vies with Heaven, offer Divine Sacrifice of appeasement. May

His sacred ministers in every part of the world sacrifice and

offer to the Eternal Father that same oblation of His Beloved

Son, of Christ, Who once only offered Himself in bloody
manner on the altar of the Cross, and in the not bloody manner

in which His immense and ineffable love offered Himself

countless times on our altars.

"Yes, O Father Who art in Heaven, O God, our strength,
turn Thy gaze toward Christ Thy Son. Behold the Chris-

tian marks of His wounds, to which He was brought by His

love for us and His obedience to Thee, through which He ever

wished to be our Advocate and Peacemaker.

"O Jesus, our Saviour, speak to Thy Father for us, inter-

cede with Him for us, for Thy Church, for all men who have

been won by Thy blood. O Peace-bringing King, O Prince
of Peace! Thou Who hast the keys of life and death, grant
the peace of eternal rest to the souls of all faithful who have

been swept to their death in this whirlwind of war and have

been known and unknown, wept and unwept, and buried

beneath the ruins of cities and villages destroyed, or have met

their deaths on gory plains, or war-torn hillsides, in gorges

and valleys or in the depths of the sea.

"May Thy purifying Blood descend on them in their pains,

to wash their mantles and render them worthy and bright in



Pius XII and Peace 15

Thy blessed sight. Do Thou, O loving Comforter of the
afflicted, Who didst weep at the tears of Martha and the many

desolate for their brothers, grant peace and consolation, resig-

nation and health to those poor people who are overcome by

the sorrows and tribulations of war’s calamities, to exiles, to

refugees, to unknown v/anderers, to prisoners and to the

wounded, who trust in Thee.

"Dry abundant tears of wives, mothers, orphans, of whole

families, of so many left destitute; heavy tears falling on the

bread of sorrow, eaten after long fast in cold hovels; bread

divided between children who often have been brought to Thy

altars in a little church to pray for father or elder brother,

dead perhaps, or wounded, or missing.

"Console them all with Divine gifts and with those helps

and that effective charitable relief which is our task. Suggest

to kindly souls they recognize in the afflicted and unfortunate

their brothers and love them as Thy image. Give to the

combatants, together with heroism in full token of their

duty, even to the supreme sacrifice in defense of their native

land, that noble sense of humanity by which they will not, no

matter in what circumstances, do to others that which they

would not have done to themselves or their country.

"O Lord, may Thy Divine Spirit reign and triumph over

the world. May the peace of concord and justice among

nations be restored. May our prayers be acceptable and wel-

come to the meek and humble in heart. May the numbers

and devotion of Holy Sacrifices which Thy Church, on bended

knee, offers to Thee, Priest and Victim eternally, through Thy

holy Mother, render Thee propitious toward us. Thou hast

words which penetrate and overcome hearts, which enlighten

intellects, which assuage anger and extinguish hates and re-

venge. Speak that word which will still the storm, which

will heal the sick, which is light to the blind and hearing to

the deaf and life to the dead.

"Peace among men, which Thou desirest, is dead. Bring

it back to life, O Divine Conquerer of death. Through Thee,
at last may the land and sea be calmed. May whirlwinds, that
in the light of day or in the dark of night scatter terror, fire,

destruction and slaughter on humble folk, cease. May justice
and charity on one side and on the other be in perfect balance,

so that all injustice be repaired, and the reign of right



16 Pius XII and Peace

restored, all discord and rancor be banished from men’s minds.

And may there arise, and gather strength in contemplation

of a new and harmonious prosperity, true and well-ordered

peace that will permanently unite as brothers, through the

ages, in harmonious search of high good, all peoples of the

human race in Thy sight. Amen.”

V

Christmas Message

December 24, 1940

(Contains the five "triumphs” necessary for peace
—

"indispensable pre-

requisites for such a new order”)

"The holy joy of the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord,

the intimate happiness which rises spontaneously in the hearts

of the faithful of Christ, does not depend on external events,

nor can it be diminished or disturbed by them.

"Whosoever grasps the intimate meaning of the Christmas

hymn and has tasted even one drop of the sweet nectar of

the truth of love which it contains, knows where, amidst the

confused succession of events, sufferings and trials of these

tempestuous days, he may find a haven of safety, and he will

refrain as much from undue optimism, which disregards

reality, as from the still less apostolic tendency toward a

cowardly depressing pessimism.

"Let us be infinitely grateful to Our Lord that in this, our

own day, the Church is not lacking in such elect, saintly, and

courageous souls, found alike in the ranks of the clergy and

laity, who give strong evidence of a heroism, generally over-

looked by the world, and of an unwavering fidelity.

"The material and the spiritual condition of the present

age brings into being and imposes on the apostolate enormous

demands, not only for the duration of this dreadful war, but

still more for that day at its conclusion, when the peoples will

be obliged to dedicate themselves to the task of repairing the

deep-seated evils which will be their bitter social and economic

heritage; when disorganized nations find themselves, at the

war’s conclusion, with spiritual wounds which will certainly

demand assiduous and watchful care, that their pernicious

effects may be forestalled or minimized.



Pius XII and Peace 17

"Among the many misfortunes arising from this cruel con-

flict one in particular which immediately brought sorrow to

Our heart continues to grieve Us—namely the misfortunes
of the prisoners of war, which become progressively more dis-

tressing for Us with the ever diminishing possibility of Our

hastening in Our paternal solicitude to bring aid through effi-

cacious relief and consolation where the victims are most

numerous and the misery most pitiable.

"Mindful of what We, Ourselves, in the august name of

the Sovereign Pontiff, Benedict XV of happy memory, were
able to accomplish during the last war for the relief of the

moral and material distress of many prisoners of war. We had
hoped that in the present instance as well there might be left

open the way for the religious and charitable initiatives of

the Church.

"However, although Our aim has been frustrated in some

countries. Our efforts have not been in vain everywhere since

We have succeeded in bringing many material and spiritual
evidences of Our concern to at least a portion of the Polish

prisoners; and indeed other more frequent evidences of that

same solicitude to Italian prisoners and internees, especially

in Egypt, Australia, and Canada.

"Nor was it Our desire that the Holy Feast of Christmas

should dawn on the world without Our conveying through the

medium of Our representatives some definite manifestation of

Our encouraging remembrance and benediction to the Eng-

lish and French prisoners in Italy, the Germans in England,

the Greeks in Albania, and the Italians scattered throughout

various parts of the British Empire, especailly in Egypt, Pales-

tine and India.

"Eager, therefore, to make Our own the anxieties of fami-

lies, fearful for the lot of their separated and unfortunate

relations. We have undertaken and are actively advancing and
developing another task of no small magnitude, namely that of

requesting and transmitting information wherever it is pos-

sible and permissible to do so, not only concerning countless

prisoners, but also concerning refugees and those whom the
present calamities have so sadly separated from fatherland

and home.

"In this way We have been able to feel close to Our own,
the beat of thousands of hearts with the disturbed tumult of



18 Pius XII and Peace

their most intimate feelings, either in strained tension or

under the terrible incubus of uncertainty, or in the exultant

joy of renewed assurance or in profound suffering and quiet

resignation regarding the fate of their loved ones.

"No less comforting is it to Us to have been in a position

to console with the moral and spiritual assistance of Our rep-

resentatives or with an offering of Our resources large num-

bers of refugees, expatriates and emigrants, including 'non-

Aryans.’

"We were enabled in Our aid to those of Polish origin to be

especially generous as also to those others for whom the

charitable contributions of Our children in the United States

facilitated Our paternal solicitude for them.

"Exactly one year ago. Venerable Brothers and Beloved Sons,

in this very place We formulated certain principles with re-
gard to the essential presuppositions of a peace which would

conform to the principles of justice, equity and honor and

would thus be enduring. And if the succeeding march of

events has delayed their application to a more distant time,

the thoughts then proposed have nevertheless lost none of their

intrinsic truth and conformity^ to reality, nor of their force

of moral obligation.

"From the impassioned polemics of warring factions con-

cerning the objectives of the war and the ultimate peace set-

tlement, there emerges, ever more clearly defined, a quasi-uni-

versal opinion which contends that pre-war Europe as well as

its political structure are now undergoing a process of trans-

formation of such a nature as to signal the dawn of a new

era.

"Europe and its system of states, it is said, will not be as

they were before, ^mething new and better, more evolved

organically, sounder, freer and stronger, must replace the past

in order to eliminate its defects, its weaknesses and its defi-

ciencies, which are said to have been disclosed convincingly by

recent events.

"In the midst of the contrasting systems which are part of

our times and dependent upon them, the Church cannot be

called upon to favor one more than another. In the orbit

of the universal value of divine law, whose authority obliges

not only individuals but nations as well, there is ample room

and liberty of action for the most varied forms of political



Pius XII and Peace 19

opinion; whilst the practical application of one political sys-

tem or another depends in a large measure and often quite

decisively upon circumstances and causes which considered in

themselves are extraneous to the purpose and action of the

Church.

'*As protectress and herald of the principles of faith and

morals, it is her sole interest, her sole longing, to convey

through educational and religious channels to all peoples with-

out exception the clear waters of the fountains of the patri-

mony and values of Christian life, in order that every people

in its own peculiar way may enjoy Christian fellowship, Chris-

tian ethical-religious impulses to establish a society that would

be humanly praiseworthy, spiritually elevated and a source of

genuine good.

"Indispensable prerequisites for such a new order are:

"One, triumph over hate, which is today a cause of division

among peoples; renunciation therefore of the systems and

practices from which hate constantly receives added nourish-

ment.

"Two, triumph over mistrust, which bears down as a de-

pressing weight on international law and renders impossible

the realization of any sincere agreement.

"Three, triumph over the distressing principles that utility

is a basis of law and right, and that might makes right; a

principle which makes all international relations liable to fall.

"Four, triumph over those germs of conflict which consist

in too strident differences in the field of world economy;

hence progressive action, balanced by correspondent guaran-

tees, to arrive at an arrangement which would give to every

state the medium necessary for insuring a proper standard of

living for its own citizens of every rank.

"Five, triumph over the spirit of cold egoism, which, fear-

less in its might, easily leads to violation not only of the honor

and sovereignty of states but of the righteous, wholesome and

disciplined liberty of citizens as well.

"It must be supplanted by sincere juridical and economic

solidarity, fraternal collaboration in accordance with the pre-

cepts of Divine Law amongst peoples assured of their au-

tonomy and independence.

"As long as the rumble of armaments continues in the stark

reality of this war, it is scarcely possible to expect any definite



20 Pius XII and Peace

acts in the direction of the restoration of morally, juridically

imprescriptible rights.

"But it would be well to wish that henceforth a declaration

of principle in favor of their recognition may be given, to

calm the agitation and bitterness of so many who feel that

they are menaced or injured in their very existence or in the

free development of their activity.

"We express Our heartfelt wish that humanity and those
who will show it the way along which it is to move forward

will be sufficiently matured intellectually and capable in

action to prepare the ground of the future for the new order

that will be solid, true and just.

"We pray God that it may so happen.”

VI

Easter Sunday Message

April 13, 1941

{Excerpts from "Urbi et Orbi,” broadcast to the world, asking for ]ust and

humane treatment of civilian populations by belligerents)

"In the lamentable spectacle of human conflict which We
are now witnessing We acknowledge the valor and loyalty
of all those who with a deep sense of duty are fighting for

the defense and prosperity of their homeland; We recognize,
too, the prodigious and, in itself, efficacious development made

in industrial and technical fields, nor do We overlook the

many generous and praiseworthy gestures of magnanimity

which have been made towards the enemy; but while We

acknowledge. We feel obliged nonetheless to state that the

ruthless struggle has at times assumed forms which can be

described only as atrocious. May all belligerents, who also

have human hearts moulded by mothers’ love, show some

feeling of charity for the sufferings of civilian populations,

for defenseless women and children, for the sick and aged, all

of whom are often exposed to greater and more widespread

perils of war than those faced by soldiers at the front!

"We beseech the belligerent powers to abstain until the very

end from the use of still more homicidal instruments of war-

fare; for the introduction of such weapons inevitably results

in their retaliatory use, often with greater violence by the



Pius XII and Peace 21

enemy. If already We must lament the fact that the limits

of legitimate warfare have been repeatedly exceeded, would

not the more widespread use of increasingly barbarous offen-

sive weapons soon transform war into unspeakable horror?

"In this tempest of misfortunes and perils, of afflictions and

fears, our most powerful and safest haven of trust and peace

is found in prayer to God, in Whose hands rests not only the

destiny of men but also the outcome of their most obdurate

dissensions. Wherefore We express Our gratitude to Catholics
of the entire world for the fervor with which they responded

to Our call to prayer and sacrifice for peace on November 24.

"Today We repeat that invitation to you and to all those
who raise their minds and hearts to God and We beseech you
not to relax your prayerful vigilance but rather to reanimate

and redouble it. Yes, let us pray for early peace. Let us pray

for universal peace; not for peace based upon the oppression

and destruction of peoples but peace which, while guarantee-

ing the honor of all nations, will satisfy their vital needs and

insure the legitimate rights of all.

"We have constantly accompanied prayer with Our own

endeavors. To the very limit of Our power and with a vigi-

lant consciousness of impartiality in spirit, and in Our apos-

tolic office We have left nothing undone or untried in order
to forestall or shorten the conflict, to humanize the methods

of war, to alleviate suffering and to bring assistance and com-*

fort to the victims of war. We have not hesitated to indi-
cate in unmistakenly clear terms the necessary principles and

sentiments which must constitute the determining basis of a

future peace that will assure the sincere and loyal consent of

all peoples. But We are saddened to note that there seems to
be as yet little likelihood of an approximate realization of

peace that will be just, in accordance with human and Chris-

tian norms.

"Thus Our supplications to Heaven must be raised with

ever increasing meaning and fervor, that a new spirit may take

root and develop in all peoples and especially among those

whose greater power gives them wider influence and imposes

upon them additional responsibility; the spirit of willingness,

devoid of sham and artifice, that is ready to make mutual

sacrifices in order to build, upon the accumulated ruins of war,

a new edifice of fraternal solidarity among the nations of the



22 Pius XII and Peace

world, an edifice built upon new and stronger foundations,

with fixed and stable guarantees, and with a high sense of

moral sincerity which would repudiate every double standard

of morality and justice for the great and the small or for the

strong and the weak.

"Truth like man has but a single face: and truth is Our

weapon just as prayer is Our defense and strength, and the

living, sincere and disinterested apostolic word inspired by

fraternal affection. Our entree to the hearts of men.

"These are not offensive and bloody weapons but the arms

of spirit, arms of Our mind and heart. Nothing can impede

or restrain Us from using them to secure and safeguard just

rights, true human brotherhood and genuine peace, wherever

the sacred duty of Our office prompts Us and compassion for

the multitude rekindles Qur love.

"Nothing can restrain Us from repeatedly calling to the

observance of the precept of love those who are children of the

Church of Christ, those who because of their faith in the

Divine Saviour or at least in Our Father Who is in Heaven
are very near to us.

"Nothing can impede or restrain Us from doing all in Our

power in order that, in the tempest of surging waves of enmity

among the peoples of the earth, the Divine Ark of the Church

of Christ may be held firmly by the anchor of hope under the

golden rays of peace—that blessed vision of peace which, in
the midst of worldly conflicts, is the refuge and abode and sus-

tenance of that fraternal spirit, founded in God and ennobled

in the shadow of the Cross, with which the course must be set

if we are to escape from the present tempest and reach the

shore of a happier and more deserving future.

"However, under the vigilant Providence of God and armed

only with prayer, exhortation and consolation. We shall per-
severe in Our battle for peace in behalf of suffering humanity.

May the blessings and comforts of Heaven descend on all

victims of this war; upon you who are prisoners and upon

your families from whom you are separated and who are

anxious about you; and upon you refugees and dispossessed

who have lost your homes and land, your life’s support. We
share with you your anguish and suffering. If it is not allowed

Us—as We would honestly desire—to take upon Ourselves the
burden of your sorrows, may Our paternal and cordial sym-



Pius XII and Peace 23

pathy serve as the balm which will temper the bitterness of

your misfortune with today’s greeting of the Alleluia, the

hymn of Christ’s triumph over earthly martyrdom, the blos-

som of the olive tree of Gethsemane flourishing in the precious

hope of resurrection and of the new and eternal life in which

there will be neither sorrows nor struggles. In this vale of

tears there is no lasting city, no eternal homeland.

"Here below we are all exiles and wanderers; our true citi-

zenship, which is limitless, is in Heaven, in eternity, in God.

If worldly hopes have bitterly deluded you, remember that

hope in God never fails or deceives. You must make one

resolve—^not to allow yourselves to be induced, either by your
sad lot or by the malice of men to waver in your allegiance

to Christ.

"Prosperity and adversity are part and parcel of man’s

earthly existence; but what is of the utmost importance, and

We say it with St. Augustine, is the use that is made of what
is called prosperity or adversity. For the virtuous man is

neither exalted by worldly well-being nor humbled by tem-

poral misfortune; the evil man on the other hand, being cor-

rupted in prosperity, is made to suffer in adversity.

"To the powers occupying territories during the war, We
say with all due consideration: let your conscience guide you

in dealing justly, humanely and providently with the peoples

of occupied territories. Do not impose upon them burdens

which you in similar circumstances, have felt or would feel

to be unjust.

"Prudent and helpful humanitarianism is the commenda-

tion and boast of wise generals; and the treatment of prisoners

and civilians in occupied areas is the surest indication and

proof of the civilization of individuals and nations. But

above all remember that upon the manner in which you deal

with those whom the fortunes of war put in your hands may
depend the blessing or curse of God upon your own land.

"Contemplation of a war that is so cruel in all its aspects

and the thought of the suffering children of the Church

inspires in the heart of the Common Father and forms upon
Our lips words of comfort and encouragement for the pastors

and faithful of those places where the Church, the Spouse of

Christ, is suffering most; where fidelity to her, the public pro-

fession of her doctrines, the conscientious and practical ob-



24 Pius XII and Peace

servance of her laws, moral resistance to atheism and to de-

Christianizing influences deliberately favored or tolerated, are

being openly or insidiously opposed and daily in various ways

made increasingly difficult.”

VII

Pentecost Radio Broadcast

June 1, 1941

{Excerpts from the address commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of

Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical, ^’The Condition of Labor” (May 15, 1891),

and giving '^directive moral principles on three fundamental values of

social and economic life”)

"It was in the profound conviction that the Church has

not only the right but even the duty to make an authoritative

pronouncement on social questions that Leo XIII addressed

his message to the world. He had no intention of laying

down guiding principles of the purely practical, we might say

technical, side of the social structure; for he was well aware

of the fact—as Our immediate predecessor of saintly memory,
Pius XI, pointed out ten years ago in his commemorative

Encyclical Ouadragesimo Anno—that the Church does not
claim such a mission. In the general framework of labor to

stimulate the sane and responsible development of all the

energies, physical and spiritual, of individuals and their free

organization, there opens up a wide field of action where the

public authority comes in with its integrating and coordi-

nating activity, exercised first through the local and profes-

sional corporations and finally in the activity of the State

itself, whose higher moderating social authority has the im-

portant duty of forestalling the dislocations of economic bal-

ance arising from plurality and divergence of clashing inter-

ests, individual and collective.

"It is, on the other hand, the indisputable competence of

the Church, on that side of the social order where it meets

and enters into contact with the moral order, to decide

whether the bases of a given social system are in accord with

the unchangeable order which God, Our Creator and Re-

deemer, has shown us through the natural law and revelation,

that two-fold manifestation to which Leo XIII appeals in his



Pius XII and Peace 25

Encyclical, and with reason: For the dictates of the natural

law and the truths of revelation spring forth in a different

manner like two streams of water that do not flow against

one another but together from the same Divine Source,

"And the Church, guardian of the supernatural, Christian

order in which nature and grace converge, must form the

consciences even of those who are called upon to find solutions

for the problems and the duties imposed by social life.

"From the form given to society, whether conforming or

not to the Divine Law, depends and emerges the good or ill

of souls; depends, that is, the decision whether men, all called

to be revived by the grace of Christ, do actually, in the de-

tailed course of their life, breathe the healthy, vivifying at-

mosphere of truth and moral virtue or the disease-laden and

often fatal air of error and corruption.

"Before such a thought and such an anticipation how could

the Church, loving Mother that she is, solicitous for the wel-

fare of her children, remain an indiffernt onlooker in their

danger; remain silent or feign not to see or take cognizance

of social conditions which, whether one wills it or not, make

difficult or practically impossible a Christian life in con-

formity with the precepts of the Divine Law given.

"Conscious of such a grave responsibility, Leo XIII, ad-

dressing the Encyclical to the world, pointed out to the con-

science of Christians the errors and dangers of the materialist

socialism conception, the fatal consequences of economic

liberahsm, so often unaware or forgetful or contemptuous of

social duties, and exposed with masterly clarity and wonderful

precision the principles that were necessary and suitable for

improving—gradually and peacefully—the material and
spiritual lot of the worker.

"If, beloved children, you ask Us today fifty years after

the date of publication of the Encyclical, to what extent the

efficacy of his message corresponds to its noble intentions, to

its thought so full of truth, to the beneficent directions un-

derstood and suggested by its wise author, We feel that We
must answer thus: It is precisely to render to Almighty God

from the bottom of Our heart Our humble thanks for the

gift which fifty years ago He bestowed on the Church in that
Encyclical of His Vicar on Earth, and to praise Him for the
life-giving breath of the spirit, which through it in ever-grow-



26 Pius XII and Peace

ing measure from that time on has blown on all mankind, that

We on this Feast of Pentecost have decided to address you.
"Our predecessor, Pius XI, has already exalted, in the first

part of his commemorative Encyclical, the splendid crop of

good to which the Rerum Novarum, like a fertile sowing,

had given rise. From it sprang forth a Catholic social teach-

ing which gave to the children of the Church, priests and lay-

men, an orientation and method for social reconstruction

which was overflowing with good effects.

"For through it there arose in the Catholic field numerous

and diverse beneficent institutions that were flourishing cen-

ters of reciprocal help for themselves and others. What an

amount of well-being, material and natural, what spiritual

and supernatural profit has come to the workers and their

families from the Catholic unions! Flow efficacious and suited

to the need has been the help afforded by the syndicates and

associations in favor of the agricultural and middle class, to

relieve their wants, defend them from injustice, and in this

way, by soothing passion, to save social peace from disorder!

"Nor was this the whole benefit of the Encyclical Kerum

Novarum. Coming down to the people and greeting them

with esteem and love, it went deep into the hearts and esteem

of the working class and inspired it with a sense of Christian

sentiment and civil dignity. Indeed its powerful influence

came with the passage of the years to expand and spread to

such an extent that its norms became almost the common

property of all men.

"And while the State in the nineteenth century, through

excessive exaltation of liberty, considered as its exclusive scope

the safeguarding of liberty by the law, Leo XIII admonished

it that it had also the duty to interest itself in social welfare,

taking care of the entire people and of all its members, espe-

cially the weak and the dispossessed, through a generous social

program and the creation of a labor code. His call evoked

a powerful response; and it is a clear duty of justice to recog-

nize the progress which has been achieved in the lot of work-

ers through the pains taken by civil authorities in many lands.

Hence was it well said that the Rerum Novarum became the

Magna Charta of Christian social endeavor.

"Meanwhile there was passing a half century which has left

deep furrows and grievous disturbances in the domain of



Pius XII and Peace
;

17

nations and society. The questions which social and espe-

cially economic changes and upheavals offered for moral con-

sideration after the Reriim Novarum have been treated with

penetrating acumen by Our immediate predecessor in the En-

cyclical Quadragesima Anno. The ten years that have fol-

lowed it have been no less fraught with surprises in social and

economic life than the years before it and have finally poured

their dark and turbulent waters into the sea of a war whose

unforeseen currents may affect our economics and society.

""Wliat problems and what particular undertakings, some

perhaps entirely novel, our social life will present to the care

of the Church at the end of this conflict which sets so many

peoples against one another, it is difficult at the moment to

trace or foresee.

'*If, however, the future has its roots in the past, if the

experience of recent years is to be our guide for the future. We
feel We may avail Ourselves of this commemoration to give
some further directive moral principles on three fundamental

values of social and economic life; and We shall do this ani-
mated by the very spirit of Leo XIII and unfolding his views

which were more than prophetic, presaging the social revolu-

tion of the day. These three fundamental values, which are

closely connected one with the other, mutually complementary

and dependent, are: the use of material goods, labor and the

family.

"Use of material goods:

"The Encyclical Rerum Novarum expounds on the ques-

tion of property and man’s sustenance, principles which have

lost nothing of their inherent vigor with the passage of time

and today, fifty years after, strike their roots deeper and retain

their innate vitality.

"In Our Encyclical Serfum Laetitiae, directed to the

Bishops of the United States of America, We called the atten-
tion of all to the basic idea of these principles which consists,

as We said, in the assertion of the unquestionable need That
the goods which were created by God for all men should flow

in an equitable manner to all, according to the principles of

justice and charity.’

"Every man, as a living being gifted with reason, has in

fact from nature the fundamental right to make use of the

material goods of the earth, while it is left to the will of man



28 Pius XTI and Peace

and to the juridical statutes of nations to regulate in greater

detail the actuation of this right. * This individual right can-

not in any way be suppressed even by other clear and undis-

puted rights over material goods. Undoubtedly the natural

order, deriving from God, demands also private property and

the free reciprocal commerce of goods by interchange and

gift, as well as the functioning of the State as a control over

both these institutions. But all this remains subordinated to

the natural scope of material goods and cannot emancipate

itself from the first and fundamental right which concedes

their use to all men; but it should rather serve to make pos-

sible the actuation of this right in conformity with its scope.

Only thus can we and must we secure that private property

and the use of material goods which bring to society peace

and prosperity and long life, that they no longer set up pre-

carious conditions which will give rise to struggles and jeal-

ousies and which are left to the mercy and the blind inter-

play of force and weakness.

“The native right to the use of material goods, intimately

linked as it is with the dignity and other rights of the human

person, together with the statutes* mentioned above, provides

man with a secure, material basis of the highest import on

which to rise to the fulfillment, with reasonable liberty, of

his moral duties. The safeguarding of this right will ensure

the personal dignity of man and will facilitate for him the

attention to and fulfillment of that sum of stable duties and

decisions for which he is directly responsible to his Creator.

“Man has in truth the entirely personal duty to preserve

and order to perfection his material and spiritual life, so as to

secure the religious and moral scope which God has assigned

to all men and has given them as the supreme norm, obligatory

always and everywhere, before all other duties.

“To safeguard the inviolable sphere of the rights of the

human person and to facilitate the fulfillment of his duties

should be the essential ofiice of every public authority. Does

not this flow from that genuine concept of the common good

which the State is called upon to promote? Hence it follows

that the care of such a common good does not supply a power

so extensive over the members of the community that, in vir-

tue of it, the public authority can interfere with the evolu-

tion of that individual activity which We have just described,



Pius XII and Peace 29

decide on the beginning or the ending of human life, deter-

mine at will the manner of man’s physical, spiritual, religious

and moral movements in opposition to the personal duties or

rights of man, and, to this end, abolish or deprive of efficacy

his natural rights to material goods.

"To deduce such extension of power from the care of the

common good would be equivalent to overthrowing the very

meaning of the words common good, and, falling into the

error, that the proper scope of man on earth is society, that

society is an end itself, that man has no other life which awaits

him beyond that which ends here below. The national econ-

omy, as it is the product of the men who work together in the

community of the State, has no other end than to secure, with-

out interruption, the material conditions in which the indi-

vidual life of the citizens may fully develop. Where this is

secured in a permanent way a people will be in a true sense

economically rich because the general well-being and conse-

quently the personal right of all to the use of worldly goods

is thus actuated in conformity with the purpose willed by the

Creator.

"From this, beloved children, it will be easy for you to con-

clude that the economic riches for people do not properly

consist in the abundance of goods measured according to a

purely and solely material calculation of their worth, but in

the fact that such an abundance represents and offers really

and eflfectively the material basis sufficient for the proper per-

sonal development of its members. If such a just distribution

of goods were not secured, or were effected imperfectly, the

real scope of national economy would not be attained; for

although there were at hand a lucky abundance of goods to

dispose of, the people, in not being called upon to share them,

would not be economically rich, but poor. Suppose, on the

other hand, that such a distribution is effected genuinely and

permanently and you will see a people, even if it disposes of

less goods, making itself economically sound.

"These fundamental concepts regarding the riches and pov-

erty of peoples it seems to Us particularly opportune to set

before you today when there is a tendency to measure and

judge such riches and poverty by balance sheets and by purely

quantitative criteria of the need or the abundance of goods.

If, instead, the scope of the national economy is correctly



30 Pius XII and Peace

considered then it will become a guide for the efforts of states-

men and peoples and will enlighten them to walk spontaneously

along a way which does not call for continual exaction in

goods and blood but will give fruits of peace and general

welfare.

"Labor:

"With, the use of material goods you yourselves, dear chil-

dren, see how labor is connected. The Rerum Novarum teaches

that there are two essential characteristics of human labor:

It is personal and it is necessary. It is personal because it is

achieved through the exercise of man’s particular forces; it is

necessary because without it one cannot secure what is indis-

pensable to life; and man has a natural, grave, individual

obligation to maintain life. To the personal duty to labor

imposed by nature corresponds and follows the natural right

of each individual to make of labor the means to provide for

his own life and that of his children; so profoundly is the

empire of nature ordained for the preservation of man.

"But note that such a duty and the corresponding right to

work is imposed on and conceded to the individual in the first

instance by nature and not by society, as if man were nothing

more than a mere slave or official of the community. From

that it follows that the duty and the right to organize the

labor of the people belongs above all to the people immediately

interested: the employers and the workers. If they do not

fulfill their functions, or cannot because of special extra-

ordinary emergencies fulfill them, then it falls back on the

State to intervene in the field of labor and in the division and

distribution of work according to the form and measure that

the common good, properly understood, demands.

"In any case every legitimate and beneficial interference of

the State in the field of labor should be such as to safeguard

and respect its personal character, both in the broad outlines

and, as far as possible, in what concerns its execution. And

this will happen if the norms of the State do not abolish or

render impossible the exercise of other rights and duties

equally personal; such as the right to give God His due wor-

ship; the right to marry; the right of husband and wife, of

father and mother, to lead a married domestic life; the right

to a reasonable liberty in the choice of a state of life and the

fulfillment of a true vocation; a personal right, this last, if



Pius XII and Peace 31

there ever was one, belonging to the spirit and sublime when

the higher imprescriptible rights of God and the Church meet,

as in the choice and fulfillment of the priestly and religious

vocations.

"The family:

"According to the teaching of the Rerum Novarum nature,

itself, has closely joined private property with the existence

of human society and its true civilization, and in a very special

manner with the existence and development of the family.

Such a link appears more than obvious. Should not private

property secure for the father of a family the healthy liberty

he needs in order to fulfill the duties assigned him by the

Creator regarding the physical, spiritual and religious wel-

fare of the family?

"In the family the nation finds the natural and fecund

roots of its greatness and power. If private property has to

conduce to the good of the family, all public standards, and

specially those of the State which regulate its possession, must

not only make possible and preserve such a function in the

natural order under certain aspects superior to all others—but
must also perfect it ever more.

"A so-called civil progress would, in fact, be unnatural

which—either through the excessive burdens imposed or
through exaggerated direct interference—were to render pri-
vate property void of significance, practically taking from the

family and its head the freedom to follow the scope set by

God for the perfection of family life.

"Of all the goods that can be the object of private property

none is more conformable to nature, according to the teaching

of the Rerum Novarum, than the land, the holding in which

the family lives, and from the products of which it draws all

or part of its subsistence. And it is in the spirit of the Rerum
Novarum to state that, as a rule, only that stability which is

rooted in one’s own holding makes of the family the vital and

most perfect and fecund cell of society, joining up, in a

brilliant manner, in its progressive cohesion the present and

future generations. If today the concept and the creation of

living spaces is at the center of social and political aims, should

not one, before all else, think of the living space of the family

and free it of the fetters of conditions which do not permit

even formulation of the idea of a homestead of one’s own?



32 Pius XII and Peace

"Our planet, with all its extent of oceans and seas and

lakes, with mountains and plains covered with eternal snows

and ice, with great deserts and trackless lands, is not, at the

same time, without habitable regions and living spaces now

abandoned to wild natural vegetation and well suited to be

cultivated by man to satisfy his needs and civil activities;

and more than once, it is inevitable that some families migrat-

ing from one spot to another should go elsewhere in search of

a new homeland. Then according to the teaching of the

Kerum Novarum the right of the family to a living space is

recognized. When this happens emigration attains its natural

scope as experience often shows: We mean the more favorable
distribution of men on the earth’s surface suitable to colonies

of agricultural workers; that surface which God created and

prepared for the use of all. If the two parties, those who

agree to leave their native land and those who agree to admit

the newcomers, remain anxious to eliminate, as far as possible,

all obstacles to the birth and growth of real confidence be-

tween the country of emigration and that of immigration, all

those affected by such a transference of people and places will

profit by the transaction: the families will receive a plot of

ground which will be native land for them in the true sense

of the word: the thickly inhabited countries will be relieved

and their people will acquire new friends in foreign countries;

and the States which receive the emigrants will acquire indus-

trious citizens. In this way the nations which give and those

which receive will both contribute to the increased welfare

of man and the progress of human culture.

"These are the principles, concepts and norms, beloved chil-

dren, with which we should wish even now to share in the

future organization of the new order which the world expects

and hopes will arise from the seething ferment of the present

struggle to set the peoples at rest in peace and justice.

"WTiat remains for Us but, in the spirit of Leo XIII and

in accordance with his advice and purpose, to exhort you to

continue to promote the work which the last generation of

your brothers and sisters had begun with such staunch courage?

"Do not let die in your midst and fade away the insistent

call of the Social Encyclical, that voice which indicated to

the faithful in the supernatural regeneration of mankind the

moral obligation to cooperate in the arrangement of society



Pius XII and Peace 33

and especially of economic life, exhorting those who share in

this life to action no less than the State itself. Is not this a

sacred duty for every Christian?

"Do not let the external difficulties put you off, dear chil-

dren; do not be upset by the obstacle of the growing paganism

of public life.

"Do not let yourselves be misled by the manufacturers of

errors and unhealthy theories, those deplorable trends not of

increase but of decomposition and of corruption of the reli-

gious life; currents of thought which hold that since redemp-

tion belongs to the sphere of supernatural grace and is, there-

fore, exclusively the work of God, there is no need for us to

cooperate on earth. Oh, lamentable ignorance of the work of

God! Professing themselves to be wise they became fools.

"As if the first efficacy of grace were not to cooperate with

our sincere efforts to fulfill every day the commandments of

God as individuals and as members of society; as if for the last

2,000 years there had not lived nor persevered in the soul of

the Church the sense of the collective responsibility of all for

all; so that souls were moved and are moved even to heroic

charity, the souls of the monks who cultivated the land, those

who freed slaves, those who healed the sick, those who spread

the faith, civilization and science to all ages and all peoples,

to create social conditions which alone are capable of making

possible and feasible for all a life worthy of a man and of a

Christian.

"But you, who are conscious and convinced of this sacred

responsibility, must not ever be satisfied with this widespread

public mediocrity in which the majority of men cannot, except

by heroic acts of virtue, observe the Divine precepts which

are always and in all cases inviolable.

"If between the ideal and the realization there appears even

now an evident lack of proportion; if there have been failures,
common, indeed, to all human activity, if divergencies of view

arose on the way followed or to be followed, all this should

not make you depressed or slow up your step or give rise to

lamentations or recriminations; nor should it make you forget

the consoling fact that the inspired message of the Pope of the

Rerum Novarum sent forth a living and clear stream of strong

social sense, sincere and disinterested; a stream which if it be

now partly perhaps covered by a landslide of divergent and



34 Pius XII and Peace

overpowering events, tomorrow, when the ruin of this world

hurricane is cleared, at the outset of that reconstruction of a

new social order which is a desire worthy of God and of man,

will infuse new courage and a new wave of profusion and

growth in the garden of human culture.

"Keep burning the noble flame of a brotherly social spirit

which fifty years ago was rekindled in the hearts of your

fathers by the luminous and illuminating torch of the words

of Leo XIII; do not allow or permit it to lack nourishment.

Let it flare up through your homage and not die quenched

by an unworthy, timid, cautious inaction in the face of the

needs of the poor among our brethren, or overcome by the

dust and dirt carried by the whirlwind of the anti-Christian or

non-Christian spirit. Nourish it, keep it alive, increase it;

make this flame burn more brightly; carry it wherever a groan

of suffering, a lament of misery, a cry of pain reaches you;

feed it evermore with the heat of a love drawn from the

Heart of your Redeemer, to which the month that now begins

is consecrated.

"Go to that Divine Heart meek and humble, refuge of all

comfort in the fatigue and responsibility of the active life;

it is the heart of Him Who to every act genuine and pure
given in His Name and in His Spirit in favor of the suffering,

the hard-pressed, of those abandoned by the world or those

deprived of all goods and fortune, has promised the eternal

reward of the blessed: (You blessed of my father! What you
have done to the least of my brethren you have done it to
me.)”

VIII

Divine Providence in Human Events

June 29 , 1941

{Excerpts from radio broadcast to the world on the Feast of SS. Peter

and Paul)

"There are not lacking, it is true, in the darkness of the

storm, comforting sights which dilate our hearts with great

and holy expectations: courage in defense of the fundamentals

of Christian civilization and confident hope in their triumph;

the most intrepid patriotism; heroic acts of virtue; chosen



Pius XII and Peace 3 5

souls ready for every sacrifice; wholehearted self surrender;

widespread reawakening of faith and of piety.

"But on the other hand; sin and evil penetrating the lives

of individuals, the sacred shrine of the family, the social or-

ganism; and being now no longer merely tolerated through

weakness or impotence but excused, exalted, entering as master

into the most diverse phases of human life; decadence of the

spirit of justice and charity; peoples overthrown or fallen into

an abyss of disasters; human bodies torn by bombs or by

machine-gun fire; wounded and sick who fill hospitals and

come out often with their health ruined, their limbs mutilated,

invalids for the rest of their lives; prisoners far from those

dear to them and often without news of them; individuals

and families deported, transported, separated, torn from their

homes, wandering in misery without support, without means

of earning their daily bread; evils all of them which affect

not only the fighters but weigh on the whole population, old

men, women and children, the most innocent, the most peace

loving, those bereft of all defense; blockades and counter

blockades which aggravate almost everywhere the difficulty

of getting supplies of foodstuffs so that already, here and there,

famine in all its horrors makes its presence felt. Added to this

the indescribable suffering, pain and persecution which so many

of Our dear sons and daughters—priests, religious, layfolk

—

in some places endure for the name of Christ because of their

religion, of their fidelity to the Church, because of their

sacred ministry; pains and bitterness which anxiety for those

that suffer does not permit US to reveal in all their sad and
moving details.

"Before such an accumulation of evils, of obstacles to vir-

tue, of disasters, of trials of every kind, it seems that man’s

mind and judgment seem to stray and become confused, and

perhaps in the heart of more than one of you has arisen the

terrible suggestion of doubt, which perchance at the death of

the two Apostles was a disturbing temptation for some of the

less staunch Christians. How can God permit all this? Can
an omnipotent God, infinitely wise and infinitely good, pos-

sibly allow so many evils which He might so easily prevent?
And there arise to the lips the words of Peter, still imperfect
when the passion was foretold: 'Lord, be it far from thee.’

"No, my God—they think—^neither Your wisdom nor Your



36 Pius XII and Peace

goodness nor Your honor, itself, can allow evil and violence

to dominate to such an extent over the world, to deride You

and to triumph by Your silence. Where is Your Power and

Providence? Must we then doubt either Your Divine Govern-

ment or Your love for us?

'"Thou savorest not the things that are of God, but the

things that are of men’, said Christ to Peter just as He had

made the Prophet Isaias say to the people of Judah: 'My

thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways.’
"All men are as children before God; all, even the most

profound thinkers and the most experienced leaders of peo-

ples. They judge events with the foreshortened vision of time,

which passes and flies past irreparably; God, on the other hand,

sees events from on high from the unmoved center of eternity.

They have before their eyes the limited view of a few years;

God has before Him the all-embracing panorama of the ages.

"They think of human events in relation to their proximate

causes and immediate effects; God sees them in their remote

causes and judges them in their remote effects: They stop to

single out this or that particular responsible hand; God sees a

whole, hidden, complicated convergence of responsibilities be-

cause His exalted Providence does not exclude the free choice

of evil and good in human selections.

"They would have immediate justice and are scandalized

at the ephemeral power of the enemies of God, the sufferings

and humiliations of the innocent permitted by God; but Our

Heavenly Father, who in the light of His eternity, embraces,

penetrates and dominates the vicissitudes of time as much as

the serene peace of the endless ages, God Who is the Blessed
Trinity, full of compassion for the weaknesses, ignorance and

impatience of men, but Who loves men too much for their
faults to turn Him from the ways of His wisdom and love,

continues and will continue to make Flis sun to rise upon the

good and bad and the rain to fall upon the just and the un-

just, to guide their childlike steps with firmness and kindness

if only they will let themselves be led by Him and have trust

in the power and the wisdom of His love for them.

"What does it mean to trust in God?

"Trust in God means the abandonment of oneself with all

the force of the will sustained by grace and love, in spite of

all the doubts suggested by appearance to the contrary, to the



Pius XII and Peace 37

wisdom, the infinite love of God. It means believing that

nothing in this world escapes His Providence, whether in the

universal or in the particular order; that nothing great or

small happens which is not foreseen, wished or permitted,

directed always by Providence to its exalted ends, which in this

world are always inspired by love for men. It means believing

that God can permit, at times here below, for some time the

preeminence of atheism and of impiety, the lamentable obscur-

ing of a sense of justice, the violation of law, the tormenting

of innocent, peaceful, undefended, helpless men. It means

believing that God at times thus lets trials befall individuals

and peoples, trials of which the malice of men is the instru-

ment in a design of justice directed towards the punishment

of sin, towards purifying persons and peoples through the ex-

piations of this present fife and bringing them back by this

way to Himself; but it means believing at the same time that

this justice always remains here below the justice of a Father

inspired and dominated by love.

"However cruel may seem the Hand of the Divine Surgeon

when He cuts with the lancet into the live flesh, it is always

an active love that guides and drives it in and only the good

of men and peoples makes Him interfere to cause such sorrow.

It means believing finally that the fierce intensity of the trial,

like the triumph of evil, will endure even here below only for

a fixed time and not longer; that the Hour of God will come,

the hour of mercy, the hour of holy rejoicing, the hour of

the new canticle of liberation, the hour of exultation and of

joy, the hour in which, after having let the hurricane loose

for a moment on humanity, the all-powerful Hand of the

Heavenly Father, with an imperceptible motion, will detain it

and disperse it and, by ways little known to the mind or to

the hopes of men, justice, calm and peace will be restored to

the nations.

"We know well that the most serious difficulty for those
who have not a correct sense of the Divine comes from seeing

so many innocent victims involved in suffering by the same

tempest which overwhelms sinners. Men never remain in-
different when the hurricane which tears up the great trees

also cuts down the lowly little flower which opened at their

feet only to lavish the grace of their beauty and fragrance on

the air around them.



38 Pius XII and Peace

"And yet these flowers and their perfumes are the work of

God and of His wonderful designing! If He has allowed any

of these flowers to be swept away in the storm can He not,

do you think, have assigned a goal unseen by the human eye

for the sacrifice of that most unoffending creature in the

general arrangement of the law by which He prevails over

and governs nature? How much more then will His Omnip-
otence and love direct the lot of pure and innocent human

beings to good!

"Through the languishing of faith in men’s hearts, through

the pleasure-seeking that moulds and captivates their lives,

men are driven to judge as evil, and as unmixed evil, all the

physical mishaps of this earth. They have forgotten that

suffering stands at the threshold of life as the way that leads

to the smiles of the cradle; they have forgotten that it is

more often than not the shadow of the Cross of Calvary

thrown on the path of the resurrection; they have forgotten

that the cross is frequently a gift of God, a gift which is

needed in order to offer to the Divine Justice our share of ex-

piation; they have forgotten that the only real evil is the sin

that offends God; they have forgotten what the Apostle says:

'The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared

with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us’, that we

ought to look on Jesus, 'the Author and Finisher of Faith;

Who having joy set before Him endured the Cross’.

"To Christ, crucified on Golgotha, the virtue and wisdom

which draws the whole world to itself, they turned their gaze

amidst the immense tribulations bound up with the spread of

the Gospel, those two Princes of the Apostles, who in life

were nailed to the Cross with Christ, and died—Peter cruci-
fied; Paul bending his neck to the headman’s sword—as
leaders, teachers and witnesses to the fact that in the Cross

is comfort and salvation and that there is no living in the

Love of Christ without suffering. To that Cross which illu-

mines the Way, the Truth and the Life, the Roman Proto-

martyrs and the first Christians looked in the hour of suffer-

ing and persecution.

"Do you, too, dear children, look upon your sufferings thus;

and you will find the strength not merely to accept them with

resignation but to love them, to glory in them as the Apostles

and Saints. Our fathers and elder brothers who were formed



Pius XII and Peace 39

of the same flesh as you and had the same power of suffering,

loved them and glorified in them. Look on your sufferings

and difficulties in the light of the sufferings of the Crucified,

in the light of the sufferings of the Blessed Virgin, the most

innocent of creatures and the most intimate sharer in the

Passion of Our Lord, and you will be able to understand that

to be like the Exemplar, the Son of God, King of Sufferings,

is the noblest and safest way to Heaven and victory.

"Do not look merely at the thorns which afflict you and

cause you pain but think also of the merit which sprouts from

your sufferings like the rose of heavenly garland; and you ,

will find them, with the grace of God, the courage and strength

of that Christian heroism which is at once sacrifice and vic-

tory, and peace surpassing all sense; heroism which your Faith

has the right to exact from you.

'"And in fine,’ (to repeat in the words of St. Peter), 'be

ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, being

lovers of brotherhood, merciful, modest, humble: not render-

ing evil for evil nor railing for railing: but contrariwise bless-

ing . . . that in all things God may be honored through Jesus
Christ: to Whom is glory and empire for ever and ever*.

"But, if the sublime heights of Christianity cause Our

thoughts to be thus exalted. We feel too in the depth of Our
heart how the desire of all Our children coincides with Ours,

asking God that in so grave an hour in history the virtue of

all be equal to their faith.”

IX

Christmas Message

December 24
,
1941

insist once again on certain fundamental conditions essential for

an international order -which will guarantee for all peoples a just and last-

ing peace”)

"But this resounds in strident contrast with the events

about us whose roar over hill and dale creates a terrifying

fracas, devastating lands and homes over wide areas and throw-

ing millions of men and their families into unhappiness, misery

and death.

"To be sure, there are many admirable demonstrations of



40 Pius XII and Peace

indomitable valor in tbe defense of rights and of native soil,

of serenity in the sorrow of souls living through a holocaust

of flames for the triumph of truth and justice. But it is, in-

deed, with a depressing anguish that We recall and, as if in a
dream, look upon the terrible armed and bloody conflict which

has marked this year now drawing to a close, upon the un-

happy lot of the wounded and of the prisoners of war, upon

the corporal and spiritual sufferings, the carnage, the destruc-

tion and ruin which aerial warfare leaves in its wake in large

and populous cities and in vast industrial centers.

"It is with that same anguish that We look upon the de-
pleted resources of nations and upon the millions of people

who are being hurled into a state of misery and total exhaus-

tion by this ruthless conflict and by its brutal violence.

"And while the strength and health of a great part of

youth which was in the process of maturing are being weak-

ened through the privations imposed by the present scourge,

the war expenditures and debts are rising to levels never

drearned of before.

"Such large-scale disbursements, giving rise as they must

to a contraction of the forces of production in the civil and

social field, cannot but be the basis for serious anxiety on the

part of those who turn their thoughts with preoccupation

towards the future.

"The very idea of force stifles and perverts the rule of law,

offers the possibility and free opportunity to individuals and

to social or political groups to violate the property and the

rights of others and permits all the other destructive forces

to upset and agitate the civil atmosphere until it becomes a

raging tempest and you shall see the notions of good and

evil, or right and injustice, lose their well-defined outlines,

become blunted and confused and finally threaten to disappear.

"Those who, by virtue of the pastoral ministry, are enabled

to penetrate the depths of men’s hearts, know and see what

an accumulation of sorrows and unspeakable anxieties take

root in many souls and diminish therein the longing for the

enjoyment of labor and life; sorrows and anxieties which suf-

focate men’s spirits and render them silent and indolent, sus-

pecting and almost devoid of hope in the face of the events

and requirements of the times.

"These are anxieties of the soul which no one may take



Pius XII and Peace 41

lightly if he has at heart the genuine good of peoples and

desires to promote a return in the near future to normal and

ordered conditions of life and action. Faced with this view of

the present, men sense a feeling of bitter disappointment

which has invaded their very hearts, especially since there

appears today to be no open road to agreement between the

belligerent parties whose reciprocal war aims and programs

would seem to be irreconcilable.

"When the causes of the present calamities are examined,

causes which leave mankind perplexed, the opinion is fre-

quently ventured that Christianity has failed in its mission.

Whence comes such an accusation and by whom is it made?

Would it be from those Apostles who were the glory of Christ?

From those heroic and zealous exponents of faith and jus-

tice? From those pastors and priests, heralds of Christianity,

who in suffering persecutions and martyrdom brought about

the civilization of barbarous peoples and prostrated them in

devotion before the altar of Christ? Would it be that such

an accusation was made by those noble men who initiated the

Christian civilization, who saved the remnants of the wisdom

and art of Athens and Rome, who united peoples in the Name

of Christ, Who taught wisdom and virtue, Who raised the
Cross above the airy pinnacles and vaults of the cathedrals,

those replicas of heavenly beauty and monuments of faith and

piety which still elevate their lofty and venerable towers in

the midst of the ruins of Europe? Would it be they who make

that accusation?

"No! Christianity, whose force derives from Him Who is
the Way, the Truth and the Life and Who is with it and shall
remain with it until the consummation of the world, has not

failed in its mission but men have rebelled against that Chris-

tianity which is true and faithful to Christ and His doctrine.

"In its place they have fashioned Christianity to their liking,

a new idol which does not save, which is not opposed to the

passions of carnal desires nor to the greed for gold and silver

which fascinates, nor to the pride of life; a new religion with-

out a soul or a soul without religion, a mask of dead Chris-

tianity without the spirit of Christ. And they have proclaimed

that Christianity has failed in its mission!

"Let us burrow deeply into the conscience of modern

society. Let us seek out the root of the evil. Where does it



42 Pius XII and Peace

thrive? Here again, of course, We do not wish to withhold
the praise due to the wisdom of those rulers who either favored

always or who desired and were capable of restoring to their

place of honor, to the advantage of the people, the value of

Christian civilization in the amicable relations between Church

and State, in the safeguarding of the sanctity of marriage, in

the religious education of youth. But We cannot close Our
eyes to the sad spectacle of the progressive deChristianization,

both individual and social, which from moral laxity has de-

veloped into a general state of weakness and brought about

the open denial of truth and of those influences whose func-

tion it is to illuminate our minds in the matter of good and

evil and to fortify family life, private life and the public life

of the State.

"A religious anemia, like a spreading contagion, has so

afflicted many peoples of Europe and of the world and has

created in their souls such a moral void that no spurious and

Pharisaical religious organization and no national or inter-

national mythology will serve to fill this emptiness. Is it not

true that for decades and centuries past men have directed

their every thought, word and deed to their sworn objective

of tearing from the hearts of our young and old alike their

faith in God, the Creator and Father of all. Rewarder of good

and Avenger of evil, and have they not striven for the ac-

complishment of this goal through a process of radical change

in education and instruction, opposing and oppressing by every

art and means the diffusion of the spoken and printed word,

and by the abuse of scientific knowledge and political power,

the religion and the Church of Christ?

"For the human spirit, overwhelmed in the confusion of this

moral abyss, by its alienation from God and Christian prac-

tices, no other course remained but that of turning all its

thoughts, purposes and enterprises and every evaluation of

men’s possessions, actions and labor and directing them to the

material world, striving and sweating with might and main

to spread out in space, to surpass all previous accomplishments

in the attainment of riches and power, to engage in a competi-

tion of speed, to produce in greater quantity and quality every-

thing that material advancement and progress seemed to

require.

"Hence, we witnessed in the political sphere, the prevalence



Pius XII and Peace 43

of an unrestrained impulse towards expansion and mere polit-

ical advantage to the disregard of moral principle in the field

of economics, the domination of great, gigantic enterprises

and trusts in social life, the uprooting and crowding of masses

of the people in distressing and excessive concentration in the

great cities and centers of industry and commerce, with all

the uncertainty which is an inevitable consequence when men

in large numbers change their homes and residences, their

countries and trades, their attachments and friendships.

"It followed from this, then, that the contact and relation-

ship between men in their social life took on a character that

was purely physical and mechanical, with a contemptuous

disregard for every reasonable moderation and consideration.

The rule of external compulsion, mere possession of power,

overruled the norms of right and order governing human asso-

ciation and community life which, emanating from God,

determine the natural and supernatural relationship that should

prevail in the co-existence of law and love as applied to the

individual and to society.

"The majesty and dignity of the particular social groups

became a dead letter, degraded and suppressed by the idea

that might makes right. The right to private property be-

came, for some, a power to be used for the exploitation of the

labor of their fellowmen; in others that right enkindled a

spirit of jealousy, intolerance and hatred and the organization

that resulted therefrom was converted into a powerful weapon

to be used in conflict by the contending parties to gain the

advantage for their particular interests.

"In some countries, a godless and anti-Christian conception

of the State bound the individual to itself with its vast ten-

tacles in such a way as to almost deprive him of all independ-

ence, and this no less in his private than in his public life.

"Who today can be surprised that such radical opposition

to the principles of Christian teaching has finally found its

outlet in so intense a clash of internal and external enmities

as to lead to the extermination of human lives and the destruc-

tion of worldly goods?

"The spectacle which We are now beholding with such pro-
found sorrow is the unhappy consequence and fruit of the

social condition We have described. The war, far from arrest-
ing this influence and development, promotes it, accelerates



44 Pius XII and Peace

it and spreads it with increasing ruin the longer it endures,

rendering the catastrophe ever more general.

"From Our words, directed against the materialism of the

past century and of the present time, it would be wrong to

deduce a condemnation of technical progress.

"No, We do not condemn that which is a gift of God Who,
just as He causes the bread-yielding wheat to rise from the

sod of the earth, has also hidden in the bowels of the earth

from the time of the world’s creation treasures of fire, of

metals, of precious stones to be uncovered by the hand of man

for his needs, for his works, and for his progress.

"The Church, mother of so many universities of Europe,

while continuing to exalt and gather together the most fear-

less masters of the sciences and explorers of nature, does not

fail, at the same time, to bear in mind that all God’s gifts

and the very freedom of the human will, itself, can be used

in a way to merit praise and reward, or blame and condemna-

tion. Thus, it has happened that the spirit and the tendency

with which technical progress was often put to use have

brought it about that in our time technology must expiate

its error and be, as it were, its own avenger by producing in-

struments of destruction which destroy today what it had

erected yesterday.

"In the face of the enormity of the disaster, . . . We have
indicated there is no other remedy than that of a return to the

altars, at the foot of which numberless generations of the

faithful in former times drew down upon themselves divine

blessings and moral strength for the fulfillment of their duties,

a return to the faith which enlightened individuals and society,

as a whole, and indicated to them their respective rights and

duties, a return to the wise and unshakable norms of the social

order which, in affairs of national as well as international

import, erect an efficacious barrier against the abuse of liberty

and against the misuse of power. But the recall of these

beneficent sources must be especially loud, persistent and

universal in that hour when the old order will be about to

give way and cede its place to the new.

"The future reconstruction will present and offer very

valuable opportunities to advance the forces of good but it

will also be fraught with the danger of a lapse into errors

which will favor the forces of evil and there will be demanded



Pius XII and Peace 45

prudent sincerity and mature reflection, not only by reason

of the gigantic difficulty of the task but also because of the

grave consequences which, in the case of failure, would result

in both material and spiritual spheres. There will be required

broad intellects and will, strong in their purposes; men of

courage and enterprise, but above and before all, there must

be consciences which, in their planning, in their deliberations

and in their actions, are animated, moved and sustained by a

lively sense of responsibility and which do not shrink from

submission to the holy laws of God.

"For if, to the vigor which shapes the material order, there

be not united in the moral order the highest reflection and

sincere purpose, then, undoubtedly, we will see verified the

judgment of St. Augustine: 'They run well but they have left

the track; the farther they run the greater is their error for

they are going ever farther from their course.’ Nor would it

be the first time that men who, in the expectation of being

crowned at war’s end with the laurel wreath of victory, have

dreamed of giving to the world a new order by pointing out

new ways which in their opinion lead to well-being, prosperity

and progress. Yet whenever they have yielded to the tempta-

tion of imposing their own interpretation, contrary to the

dictates of reason, moderation, justice and the nobility of

man, they have found themselves disheartened and stupified in

the contemplation of the ruins of deluded hopes and mis-

carried plans.

"Thus, history teaches that treaties of peace stipulated in a

spirit and with conditions opposed both to the dictates of

morality and to genuine political wisdom, have had but a

wretched and short-lived existence, and so have revealed and

testified to an error of calculation, human, indeed, but fatal

nonetheless.

"Now the destruction brought about by the present war

is on so vast a scale that it is imperative that there be not

added to it also the further ruin of a frustrated and deluded

peace. In order to avoid so great a calamity it is fitting that

in the formulation of that peace there should be assured the

cooperation, with sincerity of will and energy, with the pur-

pose of a generous participation, not only of this or that party,

not only of this or that people, but of all people; yea, rather

of all humanity. It is a universal undertaking for the com-



46 Pius XII and Peace

mon good which requires the collaboration of all Christendom
in the rehgious and moral aspects of the new edifice that is to

be constructed.

"We are, therefore, making use of Our right; or better.
We are fulfilling Our duty as today, on this eve of the Holy
Feast of Christmas, the divine dawn of hope and of peace for

the worlds with all the authority of Our Apostolic ministry,

and with the fervent impulse of Our heart. We direct the
attention and the consideration of the entire world to the dan-

gers which lie in wait to threaten a peace which is to be the

well-prepared basis for a truly new order and which is to ful-

fill the expectation and desires of all peoples for a more tranquil

future.

"Such a new order, which all the peoples desire to see

brought into being after the trials and the ruins of this war,

must be founded on that immovable and unshakable rock,

the moral law which the Creator Himself has manifested by

means of the natural order and which He has engraved with

indelible characters in the hearts of men; that moral law whose

observance must be inculcated and fostered by the public

opinion of all nations and of all States with such a unanimity

of voice and energy that no one may dare to call into doubt

or weaken its binding force.

"Like a shining beacon, this moral law must direct by the

light of its principles, the course of action of men and of

States, and they must all follow its admonishing, salutary and

profitable precepts if they do not wish to abandon to the

tempest and to ultimate shipwreck every labor and every ef-

fort for the establishment of a new order.

"Consequently, recapitulating and integrating what We
have expounded on other occasions. We insist once again on
certain fundamental conditions essential for an international

order which will guarantee for all peoples a just and lasting

peace and which will be a bountiful source of well-being and

prosperity.

"Within the limits of a new order founded on moral prin-

ciples there is no room for the violation of the freedom, in-

tegrity and security of other States; no matter what may be

their territorial extension or their capacity for defense. If

it is inevitable that the powerful States should, by reason of

their greater potentialities and their power, play leading roles



Pius XII and Peace 47

in the formation of economic groups comprising not only

themselves but also smaller and weaker States as well, it is,

nevertheless, indispensable that in the interests of the com-

mon good they, as all others, respect the rights of those smaller

States to political freedom, to economic development and to

the adequate protection, in the case of conflicts between na-

tions, of that neutrality which is theirs according to the

natural, as well as international, law.

"In this way, and in this way only, shall they be able to

obtain a fitting share of the common good and assure the

material and spiritual welfare of the peoples concerned.

"Within the limits of a new order founded on moral prin-

ciples, there is no place for open or occult oppression of the

cultural and linguistic characteristics of national minorities,

for the hindrance or restriction of their economic resources,

for the limitation or abolition of their natural fertility. The

more conscientiously the Government of the State respects the

rights of minorities, the more confidently and the more effec-

tively can it demand from its subjects a loyal fulfillment of

those civil obligations which are common to all citizens.

"Within the limits of a new order founded on moral prin-

ciples, there is no place for that cold and calculating egosim

which tends to hoard the economic resources and materials

destined for the use of all to such an extent that the nations

less favored by nature are not permitted access to them. In

this regard, it is for Us a source of great consolation to see

admitted the necessity of a participation of all in the natural

riches of the earth, even on the part of those nations which

in the fulfillment of this principle belong to the category of

'givers’ and not to that of 'receivers.’ It is, however, in

conformity with the principles of equity that the solution to

a question so vital to the world economy should be arrived

at methodically and in easy stages, with the necessary guar-

antees, drawing useful lessons from the omissions and mis-

takes of the past.

"If, in the future peace, this point were not be courage-

ously dealt with, there would remain in the relations between

peoples a deep and far-reaching root, blossoming forth into

bitter dissensions and burning jealousies and which would lead

eventually to new conflicts. It must, however, be noted how

closely the satisfactory solution to this problem is connected



48 Pius XII and Peace

with another fundamental point which We shall treat next.
"Within the limits of a new order founded on moral prin-

ciples, once the more dangerous sources of armed conflicts

have been eliminated, there is no place for a total warfare or

for a mad rush to armaments. The calamity of a world war,

with the economic and social ruin and the moral dissolution

and breakdown which follow in its trail, should not be per-

mitted to envelop the human race for a third time.

"In order that mankind be preserved from such a misfor-

tune it is essential to proceed with sincerity and honesty to a

progressive limitation of armaments. The lack of equilibrium

between the exaggerated armaments of the powerful States and

the limited armaments of the weaker ones is a menace to har-

mony and peace among nations and demands that an ample

and proportionate limit be placed upon production and posses-

sion of offensive weapons in proportion to the degree in which

disarmament is effected.

"Means must be found which will be appropriate, honorable

and efficacious in order that the norm 'pacts must be ob-

served’ will once again enjoy its vital and moral function in

the juridical relations between States.

"Such a norm has undergone many serious crises and has

suffered undeniable violations in the past and has met with an

incurable lack of trust amongst the various nations and also

amongst their respective rulers. To procure the rebirth of

mutual trust, certain institutions must be established which

will merit the respect of all and which will dedicate them-

selves to the most noble office of guaranteeing the sincere

observance of treaties and of promoting, in accordance* with

the principles of law and equity, necessary corrections and

revisions of such treaties.

"We are well aware of the tremendous difficulties to be

overcome and the almost superhuman strength and good will

required on all sides if the double task We have outlined is to

be brought to a successful conclusion. But this work is so

essential for a lasting peace that nothing should prevent re-

sponsible statesmen from undertaking it, and cooperating in

it with abundant good will so that, by bearing in mind the

advantages to be gained in the future, they will be able to

triumph over the painful remembrances of similar efforts

doomed to failure in the past and will not be daunted by the



Pius XII and Peace 49

knowledge of the gigantic strength required for the accom-

plishment of their objective.
*

'Within the limits of a new order founded on moral prin-

ciples, there is no place for the persecution of religion and of

the Church. From a lively faith in a personal and transcendent

God, there springs a sincere and unyielding moral strength

which informs the whole course of life; for faith is not only

a virtue, it is also the divine gate by which all the virtues

enter the temple of the soul and it constitutes that strong and

tenacious character which does not falter before the rigid

demands of reason and justice. This fact always holds true,

but it should be even more evident when there is demanded

of the statesman, as of the least of his citizens, the maximum

of courage and moral strength for the reconstruction of a new

Europe and a new world on the ruins accumulated by the

violence of the world war and by the hatred and bitter dis-

unity amongst men regarding the social question which will

be presented in the post-war period in a form more acute

than ever.

"Our predecessors, and We Ourselves, have set forth prin-
ciples for its solution. It is, however, well to bear in mind

that these principles can be followed in their entirety and

bear their fullest fruit only when statesmen and peoples, em-

ployers and employes, are animated by faith in a personal

God, the Legislator and Judge to Whom they must one day
give an account of their actions; for while unbelief which

arrays itself against God, the Ruler of the Universe, is the

most dangerous enemy of a new order that would be just, on

the other hand, every man who believes in God is numbered

amongst His partisans and paladins. Those who have faith

in Christ, in His divinity, in His law, in His work of love

and of brotherhood amongst men, will make a particularly

valuable contribution to the reconstruction of the social order.

"All the more priceless, therefore, will be the contribution

of statesmen who show themselves ready to open the gates

and smooth the path for the Church of Christ so that, free

and unhindered, it may bring its supernatural influence to

bear in the conclusion of a peace amongst nations and may

cooperate with its zeal and love in the immense task of find-

ing remedies for the evils which the war will leave in its wake.

"For this reason. We are unable to explain why it is that in



50 Pius XII and Peace

some parts of the world countless legislative dispositions bar

the way to the message of the Christian Faith while free and

ample scope is given to a propaganda that opposes it, youth

is withdrawn from the beneficent influence of the Christian

family, alienated from the Church, educated in a spirit con-

trary to the teachings of Christ and imbued with ideas, maxims

and practices which are anti-Christian, the work of the Church

for the care of souls and for charitable enterprises is rendered

arduous and less efficacious while its moral influence on indi-

viduals and on society is disregarded and rejected. All these

forms of resolute opposition, far from being mitigated or elim-

inated in the course of the war, have, on the contrary in many

respects become even more marked.

"That all this, and even more, should be continued in the

midst of the sufferings of the present time is a sad commentary

on the spirit which animates the enemies of the Church in

imposing upon the faithful, already bearing many heavy sacri-

fices, the irksome and the troublesome burden of a bitter

anxiety which weighs upon their consciences.

"We love, and in this We call upon God to be Our witness.
We love with equal affection all peoples, without any excep-
tion whatsoever, and in order to avoid even the appearance

of being moved by partisanship We have maintained hitherto
the greatest reserve. But the measures directed against the

Church and their scope are of such a nature that We feel
obliged, in the name of truth, to say a word about it, if only

to eliminate the danger of unfortunate misunderstandings

amongst the faithful. We behold today. Beloved Children, the
God Man, born in a manger to restore man to the greatness

from which he had fallen through his own fault and to place

him once again on the throne of liberty, of justice and of

honor which centuries of error and untruth had denied him.

"The foundations of that throne shall be Calvary. It shall

be enriched, not with gold or silver, but with the Blood of

Christ, the Divine Blood which has overflowed upon the world

for twenty centuries to give a scarlet hue to the cheeks of

His Spouse, the Church, and which in purifying, consecrating,

sanctifying and glorifying its children, takes on the brilliance

of heaven.

"O, Christian Rome, that Blood is your life. By reason of

that Blood, you are great and even the ancient ruins of your



Pius XII and Peace 51

pagan greatness are seen in a new light and the codices of the

juridical wisdom of the praetors and the Caesars are purified

and consecrated. You are the mother of higher and more

human justice which does honor to you, to your See, and to

those who hear your voice. You are the beacon of civilization

and civilized Europe and the world owes to you all that is

most sacred and most saintly, all that is most wise and most

honorable. In the exalted tradition and proud history of their

peoples, you are the mother of charity. Your splendor, your

monuments, your hospices, your monasteries, your convents,

your heroes and your heroines, your voyages and your mis-

sions, your generations and your centuries, with their schools

and universities, all bear testimony to the triumphs of your

charity, that charity which embraces all, suffers all, hopes for

all, becoming all things to all men, consoling and comforting

all, curing all and recalling them to that liberty given them by

Christ, uniting all peoples in the peace of brotherly love, that

charity which brings together all men, regardless of country,

language or custom, into one united family and makes of the

entire world one common fatherland.

"From this Rome, center, rock and teacher of Christianity,

from this city called eternal by reason of its relation with the

living Christ rather than because of its association with the

passing glory of the Caesars; from this Rome, in Our ardent

and intense longing for the welfare of individual nations and

of all humanity. We direct Our appeal to all beseeching and
exhorting that the day be not delayed in which, wherever

today hostility against God and Christ is dragging men to

temporal and eternal ruin, a fuller religious consciousness and

new and higher objectives may prevail, and that on that day

there may shine resplendently over the manger of the new

order among peoples, the guiding Star of Bethlehem, herald

of a new order that will rouse all mankind to sing with the

angels, 'Glory to God in the Highest,’ and to proclaim as the

gift bestowed at last by Heaven upon the nations of the

earth, 'Peace to men of good will.’

"At the dawning of that day with what great joy will

nations and rulers, freed in mind from the fear of the insidious

dangers of further conflict, transform the swords, nicked and

jagged from constant use against their fellow man, into

ploughs with which to furrow the fertile breast of the earth



52 Pius XII and Peace

under the sun of Heavenly Benediction and to wrest from it

their daily bread, dampened now by the sweat of their brows

but no longer bathed in blood and tears of sorrow? In ex-

pectation of that happy day, and with this longing prayer

upon Our lips, We send Our greeting and Our blessing to all
Our children of the entire universe.

"May Our Benediction descend in more generous measure

on those priests. Religious, and lay persons who are suffering

pain and anguish because of their faith. May it also descend

upon those who, though not members of the visible body of

the Catholic Church, are near to us in their faith in God

and in Jesus Christ and share with Us Our views with regard

to the provisions for the peace and its fundamental aims.

"May it descend with a quickened heartbeat of affection

upon all those who are groaning under the weight of the sad-

ness and the cruel anguish of the present hour.

"May it be a shield to the soldiers under arms, a healing

remedy to the sick and wounded, a comfort to the prisoners,

to those expelled from their native land, to those who are far

from their homes and loved ones, to those deported to foreign

lands, to the millions of wretched who, at every hour, must

bear up under the gnawing pangs of hunger.

"May it be a sweet balsam to all sorrow and misfortune, a

support and consolation to all the suffering and needy as they

wait in expectation of a friendly word that may infuse into

their hearts strength, courage and the comforting sense of

compassion and fraternal assistance.

"Finally, may Our blessing rest upon those whose hands

have been extended in mercy and in a spirit of generous and

inexhaustible sacrifice to provide Us, above the limitations of

Our own, with the means which have enabled Us to assuage

the tears and allay the poverty of many, especially of the

most wretched and abandoned victims of the war, and in this

v/ay to make them realize how Divine Goodness and Loving

Kindness, which have their highest and most surpassing

revelation in the Infant of the Manger, Who by His poverty

wished to make us rich, never cease in all the vicissitudes of

time and misfortunes to live and have their practical exempli-

fication in the Church. To all. We impart with profound

paternal love and from the fullness of Our heart, the Apostolic

Benediction.”



Pius XII and Peace 53

X

Episcopal Silver Jubilee Radio Address

May 13, 1942

(Excerpt from address to the world on the occasion of the twenty-fifth

anniversary of Pope Pius XIVs consecration as a Bishop)

"The divine mission of the Church, established immovably

on the Rock of Peter, has no limits of space on earth and had

no limit in its activity but the time limit of mankind; but,

like every age that passes, the present moment presents to her

and imposes on her new enterprises, duties, cares. The cries

for help which each day brings to us would tell us, if we did

not already know it, what the present moment in its onward

rush asks and demands from the Church, namely, to use her

authority to secure that the present terrible conflict may

cease and the flood of tears and blood may issue forth into an

equitable and lasting peace for all.

"Our conscience is Our witness that from the moment

when the hidden designs of God entrusted to our feeble

strength the weight, now so heavy, of the Supreme Pontifi-

cate, We have labored both before the outbreak of war and
during its course for peace, with all Our mind and strength

and within the ambit of Our apostolic ministry. But now

when the nations are living in the painful suspense of wait-

ing for new engagements to begin. We take the opportunity
offered by this occasion to speak once again a word of peace;

and We speak that word in the full consciousness of Our abso-
lute impartiality towards all the belligerents and with equal

affections for all peoples without exception. We know well
how in the present state of affairs the formulation of specific

proposals of a just and equitable peace would not have any

well-founded probability of success—^indeed every time that
one speaks a word of peace one runs the risk of offending one

or other side. In fact, while one side bases its security on

the results obtained, the other rests its hopes on future bat-

tles. If, however, the present lining up of forces, of gains

and losses in the political and military sphere, does not show

any immediate practical possibility of peace, the destruction

wrought by the war among the nations in the material and

spiritual plane is all the time accumulating to such an

extent that it calls for every effort to prevent its increase by



54 Pius XII and Peace

bringing the conflict to a speedy end. Even prescinding from

arbitrary acts of violence and cruelty—against which, on
former occasions, We raised Our voice in warning; and We
repeat that warning now with insistent supplication—even in
the face of threats of still more deadly warfare, the war of

itself, through the perfect technical quality of its weapons,

causes unheard of pain, misery and suffering to the nations.

Our thoughts are with the courageous combatants, with the

multitudes that are living in the zones of operations in occu-

pied countries or within their own countries. We think—how
could We not think—of the dead, of the millions of prisoners,
of the mothers, wives, sons who for all their love of their

country are prey to mortal anguish. We think of the separa-
tion of married people, of the breakdown of family life, of

famine and economic penury. Does not each of these names

of evil and ruin connote a numberless group of heartrending

cases in which is epitomized and condensed the most lament-

able, bitter, excruciating phenomenon ever turned loose on

humanity and make Us fearful of a near future full of ter-

rible unknown economic and social hardships?

"For whole decades a gigantic amount of study and the

flower of intellect and good will had been devoted to realizing

a solution of the social question and now after all this the

peoples must behold how the public moneys, whose wise ad-

ministration for the public good was one of the cardinal points

in that solution, are being spent in hundreds of billions for

the destruction of goods and life.

"But from the want and sufferings of homes to which We
have referred—and which now extend to the whole world

—

there arises behind the war front another huge front, the front

of families injured and in anguish. Before the war some peo-

ples now in arms could not even balance their deaths with

their births; and now the war, so far from remedying this,

threatens to send the new additions to the family to physical,

economic and moral ruin.

"We should like, then, to address a fatherly word of warn-

ing to the rulers of nations. The family is sacred; it is the

cradle not only of children but also of the nation—of its
force and its glory. Do not let the family be alienated or

diverted from the high purpose assigned to it by God. God

wills that husband and wife, in loyal fulfillment of their



Pius XII and Peace 55

duties to one another and to the family, should in the home

transmit to the next generation the torch of corporal life and

with it spiritual and moral life, Christian life; that within

the family, under the care of their parents, there should grow

up men of straight character, of upright behavior, to become

valuable unspoiled members of the human race, manly in

good or bad fortune, obedient to those who command them

and to God. That is the will of the Creator. Do not let the

family home, and with it the school, become merely an ante-

room to the battlefield. Do not let the husband and wife

become separated from one another in a permanent manner.

Do not let the children be separated from the watchful care

of their parents over their bodies and souls. Do not let the

earnings and the savings of the family become void of all

fruit.

"The cry that reaches Us from the familv front is unani-

mous: 'Give us back our peace-time occupations.’ If one has

the future of mankind at heart, if your conscience before

God ascribes some import to what the names father and mother

mean to men and to what makes for the real hapniness of

your children, send back the family to its peace-time occu-

pation. As patron of this family front—from which may
God keep far all open ways of unfortunate and disastrous up-

heaval—We make a warm, fatherly appeal to statesmen that
that they may not let any occasion pass, that may open up

to the nations the road to an honest peace of justice and

moderation, to a peace arising from a free and fruitful agree-

ment, even if it should not correspond in all points to their

aspirations.

"The world-wide family front which has at the war front

so many hearts of fathers, husbands and children who, amid

the dangers and sufferings, hopes and desires, are beating with

the double love of country and of home, will become tranquil

in the prospect of a new horizon. The gratitude of mankind

and the consent of their own nation will not be wanting to

those generous leaders who, inspired not by weakness but by a

sense of responsibility, shall choose the road of moderation

and the field of wisdom when they meet the other side, also

guided by the same sentiments.

"Inspired as We are with this confidence, there remains
only for Us, dear children, to lift up to the Father of Mercies



56 Pius XII and Peace

and the Light of Wisdom Our fervent prayers that He

may hasten the dawning of that so much desired day. *Ask

and you shall receive’ was the advice of our Divine Redeemer,

Prince of Peace, Who, meek and humble of heart, calls us

to give us rest from our labours and burdens. Let us rekindle

in ourselves the spirit of love; let us hold ourselves ever ready

to collaborate with our faith and our hands, after the most

extensive, disastrous and bloody cataclysm of all history, to

reconstruct from the pile of material and moral ruins a world

that the bonds of brotherly love will weld in peace, a world

in which, with the help of the Almighty, all may be new

hearts, words and works.”

XI

Dedication of the World to the Immaculate

Heart of Mary

November 1, 1942

(The occasion of this dedication was a discourse by His Holiness broad-

cast to Portugal by the Vatican radio station, commemorating the twenty-

fifth anniversary of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin at Fatima)

"Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, Refuge of the Human

Race, Victress in all God’s battles, we humbly prostrate our-

selves before thy throne, confident that we shall receive

mercy, grace and bountiful assistance and protection 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 de-

struction, 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 compassion!



Pius XII and Peace 57

"O 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 tran-

quillity 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, may shine the sun of truth, that they 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 paganism; 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 con-

secrate 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 Kingdom of God and that all

nations, at peace with one another and with God, may pro-

claim thee blessed and with thee may raise their voices to

resound from pole to pole in the chant of the everlasting

Magnificat of glory, love and gratitude to the Heart of Jesus,

where alone they can find truth and peace.”



58 Pius XII and Peace

XII

Christmas Message"'

December 24, 1942

{Quoted are "five first steps in the attainment of internal order of states, to

which international equilibrium and harmony are intimately related)

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

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

path, the first five milestones of which bear chiselled on

them the following maxims:

"He who would have the star of peace shine out and stand

over society should cooperate for his part in giving back to

the human person the dignity given to it by God from the

very beginnings; should oppose the excessive 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 responsi-

bility is assured and guaranteed both in the earthly and the

eternal order of things.

"He should uphold respect for and the practical realization

of the following fundamental personal rights: the right to

maintain and develop one’s corporal, intellectual and moral

life and especially the right to religious formation and edu-

cation; 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 one’s duties and social limitations.

"He who would have the star of peace shine out and stand

over society should reject every form of materialism which

The full text is published by the National Catholic Welfare Confer-

ence, Washington, under the title "1942 Christmas Message of Pope

Pius XII.”



Pius XII and Peace S9

sees in the people only a herd of individuals who, divided and

without any internal cohesion, are considered as a mass to be

lorded over and treated arbitrarily; he should strive to under-

stand society as an intrinsic unity, which has grown up and

matured under the guidance of Providence, a unity which

—

within the bounds assigned to it and according to its own

peculiar gifts—tends, with the collaboration ot 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 people

—

space, light and air so that it may attend to its mission of

perpetuating new life, and of educating children in a spirit

corresponding to its own true religious convictions, and that

it may preserve, fortify and reconstitute, according to its

powers, its proper economic, spiritual, moral and juridic unity.

"He should take care that the material and spiritual advan-

tages of the family be shared by the domestic servants; 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 controlled

by the spirit of materialism, corrupts and destroys what the

parents have instilled into the minds of the children.

"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 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.



60 Pius XII and Peace

"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 practical conclu-

sions which are derived from the moral nobility of work,

and to give them all the support of her authority. These

exigencies include, besides a just wage which covers the needs

of the worker and his family, the conservatioA and perfection

of a social order which will make possible an assured, even if

modest, private property 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

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

ing over friction arising from privileges or class interests

removes from the workers the sense of isolation through the

assuring experience of a genuinely human, and fraternally

Christian, solidarity.

"Tlie 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 infection from which

new disasters may come. There are evident signs which go

to show that, in the ferment of all the prejudices and feel-

ings of hate, those inevitable but lamentable offspring of the

war psychosis, there is still aflame in the peoples the conscious-

ness of their intimate mutual dependence for good or for evil,

nay, that this consciousness is more alive and active.

"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 necessary 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, en-

courage 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 enterprise is worthy.

"He who would have the star of peace shine out and stand



Pius XII and Peace 61

over social life should collaborate towards a complete rehabili-

tation of the juridical order.

"The juridic sense of today is often altered and overturned

by the profession and the practice of a positivism and a utili-

tarianism which are subjected and bound to the service of

determined groups, classes and movements, whose programs

direct and determine the course of legislation and the prac-

tices of the courts.

"The cure for this situation becomes feasible when we

awaken again the consciousness of a juridical order resting

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 unfor-

gettable 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 arbitrary attack.

"The relations of man to man, of the individual to society,

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.

"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 overturned 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 organ-

izations dependent on it are obliged to repair and to withdraw

measures which are harmful to the liberty, property, honor,

and progress of health of the individuals.

"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 responsible 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



62 Pius XII and Peace

which aim at causing the State and its authority to deviate

from the path of morality, at severing them from the emi-

nently ethical bond which links them to individual 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 mean-

ing, the ultimate moral basis and the universal validity of

'reigning’ lies in 'serving.’
”

New N. C. W. C. Pamphlets on International Peace

Victory and Peace:

Statement issued by the Archbishops and Bishops of the

United States, November 14, 1942, together with messages of

POPE PIUS XII. 10c.

The Papal Peace Program:

By Most Reverend Samuel A. Stritch, Archbishop of Chi-

cago, synthesizing the pronouncements of the Holy See since

1939 on the subject of peace. 10c.

Peace:

A 160-page paper-bound book by Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen.
35c.

International Post-War Reconstruction:

Discusses fundamentals of a permanent program of recon-

struction after the transition period. By Rt. Rev. Msgr.

John A. Ryan. 5 c.

Our Holy Father’s (1942) Christmas Message:

A clear cut statement on the principles of internal order of

states and peoples needed to establish continuing peace. 10c.

America’s Peace Aims:

A pamphlet by leading Catholic scholars of the Catholic
Association for International Peace. 10c.



Pius XII and Peace 63

The World Society:

A statement of principles and aims that should govern a
v/ell-ordered world society. By a group of American Catholics.

10c.

Comparison of Three Programs for Peace and Post-War

Keconstruction:

Compares Atlantic Charter, The Pope’s Peace Program, and

Reports of the Catholic Association for International Peace.

10c.

Crisis of Christianity:

A statement by ten Archbishops and Bishops on today’s
crisis, which they describe as the most serious Christianity has

faced since the Church came out of Catacombs. 5 c.

The Militant Christian Virtues:

By Very Rev. Ignatius Smith, O.P., this pamphlet dis-

cusses the stern and basic virtues which are a part of complete

Christianity. 5 c.

On Family Life

Christian Marriage:

An illuminating analysis and commentary on the Marriage

Encyclical of Pope Pius XI by Edgar Schmiedeler, O.S.B.

(88 pages). 20c.

Wedded Couples Are Creators With God:

Attractively designed and forceful, this new eight-page

folder is in its second 100,000 in distribution. 2c.

A Holy War:

Against the enemies of the home and the nation: birth

control, abortion, divorce, marital infidelity, etc. 10c.

A Symposium on Birth Control:

Discussion of moral, social, legal, and economic aspects by

outstanding authorities in each field (71 pages). 10c.

Safeguarding the Home Front:

Excellent chapters on "Motherhood,” "Youth and Chastity,”

"Building Vital Families,” etc. 25c.



64 Pius XII and Peace

On Our Industrial System

Keconstrueting the Social Order:

Letter of Pope Pius XI making application of the precepts

of the Gospel to the relations between capital and labor. De-

fines the role of government in its intervention in behalf of

the comtnon good. 10c.

The Sound Old Guilds:

Pope Pius XI recommended an adapted form of the Guild as

a solution of modern economic problems. This pamphlet tells

what the Guilds were. 10c.

Jobs, Prices and Unions:

Discusses the problems of jobs and prices and the role of

unions in their solution. 10c.

The Church and Social Order:

Recommendations of the N.C.W.C. Administrative Board

of Bishops on social problems of the day. 10c.

Designs for Social Action:

Sets forth what has been done by persons and groups to

apply papal teaching on a right economic order. 10c.

On Catholic Youth and Catholic Action

Introduction to Catholic Action:

An outstanding work on this subject. By Rev. William

Ferree, S.M. 25 c.

The Catholic Youth Apostolate:

A movement to reform and penetrate the natural, temporal
order of society with the spiritual supernatural truth and

vitality of Christ in his Church. 15 c.

Challenge to Catholic Youth:

A challenge to work for Christ in the world of today, by
Right Rev. Msgr. George Johnson, leading figure in the field

of education and training of youth. 5c.