INTERNATIONAL: Blessed Are the Peacemakers

At noon of the day when the war was four years old, the mellow, undulant sound of Italian prose spread over the world. Pope Pius XII was before the Vatican microphone, admonishing the crowding Allies to be generous toward those less favored by the trend of war. Said His Holiness, in the heart of a 14-minute broadcast:

“We turn to all those whose task it is to promote agreement and harmony for peace . . . and say to them that real strength need have no fear of generosity. It has always the means of guaranteeing itself against any false interpretation of its readiness and will for pacification and against any other possible repercussions.

“Do not disturb or impede the desire of peoples for peace by actions which, instead of encouraging confidence, rather inflame hatreds anew and strengthen determination to resist.

“Give all nations a justified hope of worthy peace which does not clash with their right to live and their sense of honor. Let it be clearly seen that there is a loyal accord between your principles and your decisions, between statements about a just peace and facts.

“Only thus will it be possible to create a propitious atmosphere wherein peoples who are less favored than others by the trend of war at any given time may believe in the dawning and development of a new sense of justice and cooperation among nations. . . .” Blessed, said the Pope, are those who help prepare the ground for international justice, who cooperate to overcome the deadlock between war and peace, who keep themselves free from preconceived opinions and uncontrolled passions.

“But woe to those who in this terrible moment do not reach full awareness of their responsibility for the fate of the peoples, who feed hatred and conflicts among them, who build their power upon injustice, who oppress and torment the unarmed and innocent.”

Not all men found the same meaning in the resounding words; editorial writers had trouble phrasing cogent comment. The Nazis thought the warning had something to do with the “handing over of Europe to Bolshevism.” New York’s World-Telegram felt that the Pope meant unconditional surrender when he asked for a just peace. Others noted the absence of any reference to unconditional surrender. Said Chicago’s diocesan paper, The New World: “[the Pope’s] address will not be popular with some military leaders who, feeling that they have the enemy against the ropes, recommend the complete destruction of the Germanic and Italian states.”

Rome radio, groping fervently for a way out of the war, came back to the Holy Father’s words again & again in the days that followed. A gloomy speaker before Rome’s microphone advised the Allies to heed the Pope’s plea for a “just peace” to “avert the disaster that will undoubtedly fall on them … if they continue to demand unconditional surrender.”