Evening star., 1944-09-03
The POPE on Peace

his voice in support of all those who
are laboring today-at the Dunn
barton Oaks Conference and else
where-for just and lasting peace.
In an address marking the end Of
the fifth year of the war, he has
spoken knowingly of the terrible dis
aster, both spiritual and material"
which humanity has suffered and Of
the impelling need to guard against
repetition of it.
"An old world lies in ruins" says
the Pope, a world shattered in its
foundations and torn apart" and If
the craving OF peoples everywhere
is to be satisfied, new world must
be built, "a healthier world, better
directed and legally more in har-
mony with the needs of human ma
ture"-a world, above all, in which
the nations will work well enough
together to bind up the wounds of
mankind quickly and lastingly"
and to prevent recurrence of any
thing like the past five years.
To this end, Pope Plus unequiv-
ocally declares himself in favor of
international organizations, avoid
ing the omissions and deficiencies
of the past" to preserve the peace
"in accordance with the principles
of justice and equity" not hesi-
tating to use the sword-if neces-
sary and if juridically and morally
proper to do SOTO safeguard the
observance of rightful obligations
and prevent temptation to con-
flict" In other words, the world
needs a collective security system
with teeth in it, one equipped to
stop any future Hitler in the first
act of aggression.
The Pope, however, considers such
an organization as only part of what
is required if our international So
ciety is to have health in the fu-
ture. Long before the war began,
he repeatedly warned that the world
was basically sick, primarily be-
cause it had begun to travel far from
the religious or Christian spirit.
This century has been an intensely
pragmatic and ultramaterialistic
one, with much of society inclined
to scoff at the metaphysical and to
measure life in terms of hard cash
or what pleases the senses OF the
flesh-as If human beings, like
cattle, were totally earthbound; as
If it were all a myth about man be-
ing made in the image and likeness
of God, and as if the sole function
of life were to crafty ones self as
much as possible until the grave
opened and everything then ended
in eternal negation.
From such a materialistic attitude
it is but a fe, steps, in strict logic,
to the kind OF world inherent in the
philosophy of the Nazis. 1t is not
for nothing, then, that the Pope
pleads for the Christian spirit as
something indispensable to the sue
cess Of the next peace. This applies
not merely to whatever interna-
tional collective security organiza-
ton is set up, but also to the po-
htical, social and economic order
within individual countries. Our
society must get back to recogniz-
ing more fully "the moral laws writ
ten by the Lord in the hearts of
men, natural law deriving from God,
the fundamental rights and invio-
liable dignity of the individual"
Such terms may sound abstract
and metaphysical, but what kind of
civilization can we have if we ig-
more them? The truth is that
everything decent in mans history
up to now has been actuated by
them. Christian principles are not
things to be confined to Sunday
church-going. They constitute a
practical working philosophy for
our everyday life. Without them,
it will avail us little to make elabo-
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