What the Pope Has Done For Peace
It is ten months since Pius XII was proclaimed Pope. In that short time he has worked incessantly for peace. In more than thirty allocutions he has pleaded the cause of peace. Below is a bare summary of the most important of these peace appeals.
March 4: First allocution of Pope Pius XII before the College of Cardinals. It is an appeal to save the peace of the world.
April 9: A new exhortation to the governments and the peoples of the world to work for peace is made in r sermon preached in St. Peter's on Easter Sunday.
...mil 20: In all open letter to the Paled Secretary of State all the people of the world, the children especially, are asked to pray for peace during the month of May.
June 3: In a speech to the Cardinals on the Feast of his patron saint the Pope refers to the efforts be has made to preserve peace. He is hopeful that justice, conscience and a sense of the people's good will preserve peace. He asks for a renewal of prayers.
July 16: A letter of Cardinal Maglione, writing in the name of the Pope, to the Catholic Social Study congress at Bordeaux stresses the need of peace as a primary factor for the establishment of social justice.
July 21: In an allocution to newlymarried pilgrims the Christian family is upheld as a guarantee of peace.
July 26: In an allocution to the Polish Ambassador the principles governing true peace between nations are outlined.
August 9: A letter sent to the Catholic Social Week in Canada by Cardinal Maglione in the name of the Pope is concerned with the establishment in the civil order of charity and justice as essential prerequisites of peace.
August 24: World-wide radio appeal exhorting governments to maintain peace.
August 25: A letter is sent to the King of the Belgians expressing gratitude for the efforts he had made to preserve peace.
August 31: An appeal for the maintenance of peace is addressed to the ambassadors and governments of Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Britain.
September 14: An address to the Belgian Ambassador refers to the past and future activities of the Pope for the achieving of peace.
October 1: In a speech to Cardinal Blond the Pope refers to the fate of Poland and cries out against " the suffering in body and soul of the hundreds of thousands of human beings stricken by this war which our efforts have so perseveringly and so ardently but, alas, unavailingly tried to keep from Europe and the world."
October 20: Publication of the encyclical SHMItti Pontificates.
October 22: Allocution to the people of Castel Gandolfo concerning true peace.
November 10: Speech to the Ambassador of Haiti concerning the conditions for a durable peace between nations.
December 24: Address to Cardinals calls for a spiritual crusade to overcome the obstacles to peace. The Pope announces collaboration with Roosevelt in efforts to secure peace.
December 28: In his state visit to the Quirinal the Pope praises Italy's stand for peace.