peace, the Vatican Radio stressed the world's need for peace.
In one broadcast in English the future of the children was put forward as a special reason, and the increase in infantile mortality since the war in different countries was read out from the League of Nations' Statistical Bulletin for 1942.
The Vatican Radio, however, emphasised the point that Pope Benedict waited three years because he did not believe that the time was ripe until then. In this ideological war, the speaker continued, the solution is not so easily seen.
PAPAL PEACE: More Objections
Further objections (according to our request) to the C.H. Papal Peace Proposals reach us.
A very well known priest and broadcaster semis up: " The Holy Father and his advisers could not possibly initiate or handle 'negotiations unless the interested States had first worked out solutions to the kind of difficulty that either caused the present war or will cause the next. The Vatican would advise, plead, and interpret. It could not, with the slightest hope of success, demand sacrifices from By the ' he Editor Great Powers. Successful negotiation means essentially that the interested In further broadcasts in conparties agree to give way to each other, nection with the 25th anniversary
to sacrifice rights for a greater good. Negotiation, in other words, demands charity as well as justice.
" As Catholics we must recognise the profound distrust of Protestant Englishmen for everything Roman and Catholic. The. Pope is suspect. This is not, I think, because he happens to be an Italian by birth, but because he is a Catholic by baptism. If our nation were Catholic and understood that the Pope is the Vicar of the Prince of Peace, a priest rather than a politician, there would be every hope of success for an appeal from His Holiness. As it is, the Pope must await the humbling of the Great Powers.
" Suffering is a treasure which is enriching Europe. Almost afone in Europe Great Britain and Germany have had only a small share of this treasure. When suffering has enriched them with the spirit of humility. the Pope may speak and be heard. That day is not yet. That God may hasten the day is the prayer of every true Christian patriot, whether in allied or in enemy nal ions."
A Midlands priest writes: " We can have full trust in a Popes teaching about peace and politics, etc.. and even to some extent in his international policy; but as to any definite political action in a given situation, such as an arbitration decision, it would not be so easy to feel complete confidence. Politically a Pope can be regarded as simply the apex of a Vatican
bureaucracy which is far more permanent than himself, and not specially ideal isttc."
ANSWERS
To these we can answer as follows :
The difficulties in the Way of the Pope bringing the war, to an end arc enormous, and the fact that he has taken no direct initiative, as did Benedict XV (without success), proves that he himself finds it impossible at present to solve them.
Our plea, however. that Catholics, Christians, and others who sec the point, among the people of the United Nations should struggle for two things. The first is the acceptance of the de;tared Papal peace points as the basis of a just peace. (This indeed is already largely the case and the Sword of the Spirit, in particular, has made this one of its objects.)
The second is that the full meaning of such an acceptance should be guaranteed by a declaration or an approach to the Holy See in which it would be stated that the United Nations would in fact be ready to make peace on the principles laid down by the Holy Father, if and when the Pope thought that peace could be made on that basis.
We do not seedhat any of these objections stand in the way ofsuch a Christian campaign, and, as regards suspicions of the Vatican, that is surely an • obstacle to be overcome by the. work of enlightening the ignorant. Since the Pope has already laid down his principles, the question of the Vatican bureaucracy is at worst a secondary one.
of Benedict • XV's appeal for
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