Right of Private Property

Radical Ideas Luring Desperate Peoples

Pope Pius XII

[Broadcast as reported by the Federal Communications Commission, Vatican City, 1 September, 1944. Reprinted from Vital Speeches of the Day, Vol.X, pp.711-714]

TODAY, at the end of the fifth year of the war, humanity, while turning its eyes to look at the road of tears and blood left behind in deep distress during this dark period of history, stands aghast at the abyss of misery into which the spirit of violence and domination of force have thrown it.

Without, however, letting itself be discouraged by memory of the past, humanity is anxiously seeking the causes of such a terrible disaster, both spiritual and material, and is determined to take measures against a repetition in different forms of this tremendous tragedy.

Before so many ruins many honest spirits rise again, as if waking up from a troubled dream, anxious to find, even in fields that up to now have been separated and distant, collaborators united in the effort and struggle for the great work of reconstruction of a world that has been shattered in its foundations and torn apart. There is certainly nothing more natural, nothing more timely, nothing more urgent, even when the most indispensable precautions have been taken.

For all those who glory in the name of Christian and profess the religion of Christ and live strictly abiding by His laws, this willingness and readiness of spirit to work in unity and in true fraternal solidarity do not mean only the fulfillment of moral obligations to perform civic duties out also to raise us to the dignity of obeying the basic principles of our conscience, supported and led by the love of God and our neighbors and strengthened by the warning indications of the present time and the very intensity of our effort, aiming at the salvation of peoples.

History in a Grave Hour

History is passing through a grave hour, decisive for all humanity. An old world lies in ruins. To see a new world arise from these ruins -- a healthier world, better directed and legally more in harmony with the needs of human nature -- is the craving of martyred peoples.