POPE'S APPEAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 111, 15 May 1942, Page 5

POPE'S APPEAL

HONEST PEACE SOUGHT NO CHANCE SHOULD BE LET SLIP London. May 13. In a message broadcast to the world to-day on the occasion of his episcopal jubilee, the Pope made an appeal for peace. Declaring that Christians were suffering great hardships in pursuit ol their faith, he said tnere could be no harking back to the past for any Christian soul. “We are making war against anti-Christianity and cold indifference,” his Holiness said. He was aware that under present conditions precise formulation of proposals for a just and equitable peace would have little probability of success. Every time one spoke of peace there was the risk of offending one side or the other. If, however, the present complexity of military and political aims offered no immediate prospect ol peace, the destruction caused by the war in the moral and material spheres had reached such a point that every valid effort should be increased „ to achieve a rapid end to the conflict.” His Holiness appealed to the politicians not to let slip any opportunities which opened to mankind the way to an honest peace, with justice and moderation, arising from a free and fruitful understanding, even if it did not correspond entirely with their estimation.