ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS PIUS XII
TO SOME DEPUTIES OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES*

Sunday, 27 November 1949

Once again, Honourable Sirs, the legislative and executive halls of your Capitol have heard, in the days just past, the noble accents of a Nation's prayer of thanksgiving to the living God.

Need We tell you that Our heart is touched and comforted by this recurring evidence of your awareness—and would that it were universal!—of one the very first charges linked to the mission of responsible statesmanship?

If the Church of Christ is never done reminding her children, whether governors or governed, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, that it is "truly meet and just, right and availing unto salvation always and everywhere to give thanks to God ", for the blessings of life, liberty and abundance, and for the opportunity to dedicate their lives to His service in love—yes, even to the heroic service for faith, family and country—how much more challenging is God's summons to grateful acknowledgment of His Divine bounty and mercy, when it reaches the conscience of representatives of the people, chosen precisely to affirm, coordinate and unify in the political field their nation's deepest spiritual attitudes and aspirations!

Quite plainly, to be alert to a people's individual and collective dependence on God, and sincerely grateful in their name and place for the gifts that can come only from His provident good pleasure, commits a public servant to a programme as well as a proclamation. It must imply a sensitiveness, a delicate and determined adjustment of mind and heart to the Divine, as well as to the merely human, rights and interests that press f or recognition and protection during your days of labour and solicitude in the legislative chamber and administrative office, especially, may We not say, during these critical days of reconstruction, in the sector of international economy and finance.

Thanks be, then, first and last to God; and as you bless Him for His gifts, you will affirm the worthy purpose to honour and revere His most holy will in your fulfilling of a sacred duty to your people. And to the end that you and all legislators may heed this call of a right conscience with courage and with constancy, We fondly invoke, for yourselves, Gentlemen, and your distinguished colleagues, for your children and your country, an ever more generous boon of light and strength from the heart of Him Who holds men and nations in the hollow of His omnipotent hand.

*Discorsi e Radiomessaggi di Sua Santità Pio XII, XI,
 Undecimo anno di Pontificato, 2 marzo 1949 - 1° marzo 1950, pp. 297-298
 Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana