The Pittsburgh Press (December 24, 1941)
Christmas broadcast –
Pontiff asks ‘new order’
It would be based on ‘liberty, justice, love’
Vatican City, Dec. 24 (UP) – (Radio Vatican City)
Pope Pius XII said in a Christmas message today that the troubles of the world were due not to the failure of Christianity but to:
…those who left the path of true Christianity and created a religion without soul or a soul without religion.
The Pope called for “a real new order of all humanity” based on “liberty, justice and love.”
He said the new order would require the pacification of all nations and the sharing of all the riches of the world. The new order will also require abolition of total wars and world wars which can only ruin world economy.
There will be no room for religious persecution since religion is a valuable element in world reconstruction, the Pontiff said.
The Pope said:
The Star of Bethlehem is high in the sky and it sparkles as it did in 20 centuries ago.
Churches and chapels are illuminated but mankind is plunged in a war of destruction, which brings suffering for millions of families, devastation of big cities and the wasting of good.
The war also brings moral devastation. The difference between good and evil is no more understood.
The Pope said the “real new order” should provide for liberty and the rights of minorities, freedom of worship, retention of native cultures, redistribution of goods and help for peoples less favored in natural resources.
A peace which does not take into consideration this outline, will bear the germs of new conflicts, the Pontiff warned.
The Pontiff said he had no condemnation of technical progress, which is a “gift from God,” but he did condemn the spirit and tendency in which technical progress has been made.
He said:
The only remedy is to return to social and international principles capable of creating a barrier against the abuse of liberty and the abuse of power.
The Pope extended his blessing to all war sufferers, especially to prisoners. He said that, after the war, humanity must collaborate in the principle of Christianity to insure the integrity and security of all nations. This, he said, must be based on the principles of morality, leaving no room for the oppression of minor nations and their cultures and leaving no room for the exploitation of minor nations.
The Pope appealed to the good will of all mankind for universal observation of moral law. He said the world will face great difficulty in achieving reconstruction after the war.
He said:
There is no place in the new order for egotistic calculations in any tendency to monopolize economic and material resources destined for common usage.
The church, the Pope said, should collaborate freely in social reconstruction and he expressed hope that the Star of Bethlehem will soon sparkle with a new light over a new order for all mankind.
