RESTORATION OF PEACE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23392, 26 December 1945, Page 5

RESTORATION OF PEACE

Formidable Task Pope’s Christmas Broadcast

By Telegraph—N.Z Pres? Assn - Omnnzßl (7.30 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 24. The Pope, in a broadcast, said this was the first Christmas for six years which could be celebrated without fear of danger from sea. land and air. The Church in troubled times like these, must, more than ever, remain above national feelings. Never before had such formidable responsibility rested on those labouring to restore peace. Whoever desired reparations must ask for them on a moral basis. “We give thanks for peace, but is this yet true peace? No, it is but a postwar phase. Mankind is only now awakening to the realisation how much wisdom, patience and good will are necessary to bring back the peace of right order. “The strength of the totalitarian State has shown its tyranny. A stroke of the pen and frontiers were changed. A hasty decision and millions of people suffered. This system is contrary to human good. Only one solution' remains—a return to God and true Christianity. “We must turn our thoughts to the endless numbers of prisoners of war and the sufferings they endured We recall with emotion the inhuman treatment of civilians and missionaries in the Far East.” Sacred College Complete Referring to the creation of 32 new cardinals, the Pope said the Sacred College was now complete. ft was fairly often full in the 16th and 17th centuries, but never in the 19th and 20th till now. The Pope added that the greatest possible number of races and peoples were represented in the Sacred College in order to reflect truly the Church’s universality. Italy would not suffer by the diminution, but on the contrary would share in the eyes of all people's this grandeur of universality.