Pope Asks For Truce To Become Real Peace
(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright)
ROME, Dec. 26.
Pope Paul has furthered his diplomacy to help resolve the Vietnam conflict by urging the leaders of North and South Vietnam to translate the Christmas truce into a real peace.
Last week the Pope sent a Christmas gift of 100,000 dollars, for war victims in both South and North Vietnam.
The Pope, looking tired
after directing unflagging attention to the Vietnam problem, publicly acknowledged for the first time yesterday the success of his appeal six days ago for a Christmas truce in Vietnam. And the Vatican revealed that he had sent messages to Presidents Nguyen Van Thieu of South Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam grate, fully acknowledging the truce and begging for it to become “a step towards the establishment of a just and brotherly peace for all Vietnam.” Pope Benedict XV tried to stop the First World War and Pope Pius XII made similar efforts to prevent the Second World War but both were ignored. The intervention of Pope Paul in the Vietnam conflict has been crowned so far by unexpected success after his peace mission last October to the United Nations.
About 50,000 pilgrims in the square below Saint Peter’s Basilica appauded warmly when the Pope said how glad
he was that the Christmas truce had been granted after his plea. Pope Paul is understood to have recently increased his action—through diplomatic channels and other means—to encourage peace negotiations in Vietnam. After his appeal for a Christmas truce had been accepted, he broadcast his Christmas message urging just and sincere negotiation. Much of the Pope’s diplomatic initiative on Vietnam peace has been discreet and secret. But today the Vatican press office published the texts of his messages to the two Heads of State in Vietnam, greeting with joy the news of a truce in their “hard-tried” land and expressing “deep gratitude to the men of good will who have permitted his peaceful gesture.”
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30943, 27 December 1965, Page 9
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331Pope Asks For Truce To Become Real Peace Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30943, 27 December 1965, Page 9
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