POPE APPEALS TO CHRISTIANS: DRAW TOGETHER

Wanganui Chronicle, 26 December 1950, Page 5

POPE APPEALS TO CHRISTIANS: DRAW TOGETHER

VATICAN CITY, Dec 23 (Recd 6 pm).—Pope Pius, in a 40-minutes Christmas Eve message to the world today, made a solemn appeal to Christians t 0 draw together in the face of dangei's threatening them. In a radio message relayed over the national network to various parts of the world, he called for a lowering of the barriers that separte East and West and pledged the Catholic Church to help in bringing the two camps of split humanity closer to each other. The Pope said: “In these last weeks the rift between the people has grown deeper still. Never in the history of mankind was there such grave danger for the peace of all peoples.’’ He appealed for the barriers to be opened, fences lowered and for each people to be given the opportunity to look freely at the life of all other peoples. “May there be an end of segregation of some countries from the rest of the civilised world, a segregation so damaging for the cause of peace,” he said. The Pope announced that the tomb of St. Peter, Prince of Apostles, has been found under the main altar of the Vatican basilica of St. Peter. He said human bones had been found in the tomb, but it was not possible to prove with certainty, that they were St. Peter’s. The Pope said the great Holy Year jubilee exceeded the most optimistic expectations. He added that the year’s great events would once more pass through his mind tomorrow when he closed the Holy Door in St. Peter's basilica.