ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS PIUS XII
TO MANY REPRESENTATIVES OF THE AMERICAN PRESS*

Saturday, 18 January 1947

You have come to Europe, We are told, desirous of getting first-hand knowledge of post-war conditions. An important mission for men of your profession, and one that may be productive of far-reaching good.

Little is of greater interest to the millions who compose your reading and listening public than to get at the facts. They had believed and hoped to help rid the world of an inhuman tyranny over men's minds and bodies, and to create a new order in which all peoples would be free with the freedom of the children of their common Father who is in heaven. That hope softened the sorrow of mothers and wives and families when the grim messenger knocked at their door after the battle was over; it fortified them for the sacrifices demanded of them without parallel in their history. Must you tell them that their hope has been shattered against a succeeding tyranny?

Having fought the war America girded herself generously to come to the assistance of the victims who survived the appalling holocaust. They little thought that the food and clothing. which they were so lavishly shipping over sea, would be in some countries tagged with a price, the price of adherence to a political party. Denial of men's civil and religious rights has not ceased. Ruthless persecution of men's civil and religious rights has not ceased. Ruthless persecution of men's consciences has not abated. Nor is it surprising. But it is tragic. It could be depressing — the thought that the heroic death of hundreds of thousands of the nations brave and promising youth should have left so little peace and justice and charity in its wake.

But one dare not be discouraged. Leaders will not be wanting, they are not wanting, men of sterling character, not self-seeking but genuinely devoted to the physical and social betterment of all classes, who in the light of Critisan principles will gladly and effectively recognize what was so luminously clear to him, whom you are pleased to call the Father of your country, that Religion and Morality are the indispensable supports of political prosperity, and that Morality will not be maintained without Religion.

We pray daily that God may give these leaders the patient courage of their convictions and the strength to guide civilization back to its safe moorings. We bless you and your loved ones at home, and We express the hope that you may see the truth and speak it unafraid.

*Discorsi e Radiomessaggi di Sua Santità Pio XII, VIII,
 Ottavo anno di Pontificato, 2 marzo 1946 - 1° marzo 1947, pp. 381-382
 Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana