The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-11-16


 It was the first radio broadcast from the Vatican City to all the world, by the successor of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles. While the radio at this time was a con- paratively recent invention, and while this was the first time that the voice of Pope was broadcast, it was not however the first time that the appeal for peace and amity among nations had come from the heart of ChriStendom.
 No, my dear Friends, for centuries the messages of the successors of St. Peter first had been announced by the somewhat ponderous post ing of notices on the doors of the great baSilicas, custom which was later superseded by the more facile means of distribution. Thus the voice of the Supreme Pontiff has ever been heard to re-echo that same canticle first sung by the angels at the cradle of the Prince of Peace:" "Glory to God on high and on earth peace to men of good will"
 Even previous to the time of the Edict of Milan in the year 313, when the Church had practically no po- litical influence; when she was per- secuted as well as prescribed; even in those two centuries following the time of the barbaric invasions when war of defense was a primary need essential for the maintenance of Roman culture and civilization, 1t is well to remember that the ma jestic presence of a Pope rose superior to the din of arms and more than once saved the Eternal City from total destruction.
 Yes, Attila, the most formidable of these invaders, before whom kings ard armies withered, was so overcome at the sight of Pope Leo I that he spared the City. A few years later when this same Pontiff won't forth to meet the Vandals under the leadership of Genseric, the capital of civilization, thanks be to God, was once again spared for Western Christerdom, by nothing more than the weapon of Papal diplomacy. Yet. not until the ad- vent of the middle ages, did the Papacy seem destined to appear as an institutionalized force for peace. The old order of things no longer existed now, since all Western Europe was united under a common bond of faith and civil society was comple >ely under the pious in- fluence of Christianity. Emperors were crowned by the Popes and the greatest princes looked upon this sacred junction as the sanction and complement of their right. The late Hilaire Belloc in his Life of Vol sey," sums it up well when he says: All the life of Europe had been formed by the Church, its unity was the unity of Christendom; the Holy See its highest tribunal
 Such was the life of the Church and State on the eve of Reforma- tion. A healthy society, we may say -yes,--but lest we deceive ourselves, my dear friends, a healthy society which had not been achieved with out continuity of onerous effort on the part of the Popes and the Church. An. but the designs of Almighty God were not to be frus- trated, no, not until the Church at length reached the zenith of her power with the advent of Innocent III. His Pontificate was the cul- point in the development of an institution which realized its influence for peace and which was determined to wield the weapon of Christian diplomacy to a more salutary advantage in the admins tration of European affairs. A pro- gram of prudent and pious conduct which flourished vigorously under Popes Innocent " and V only to be complemented even during the crit ical period of the Hundred Years War by the bristling courage of men like Boniface VIII and Martin V.
 One would think, my dear friends, that such documentary evidence as this, such evidence of papal contribution to international peace should ever remain as testa- ment of the traditional Christian sentiment against war. Yet-on the contrary and even in contra diction, years later at the close of the nineteenth century when the Hague Peace Conference was called by Queen Wilhelmina of the Meth erlands at the suggestion of the Czar of Russia, the great Leo XIII was excluded. Certainly this was nothing more than a violation and of Christian tradition. Why should the Vicar of Christ be excluded from this conference? Was he not the representative of that