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PAGE 2—THE BULLETIN, October 13, 1953 (Copyright, 1958, N. C. W. C. News Service) His Holiness Pope Pius XII supreme head of the Church daring the stormiest and most fateful period of history, has become one of the great figures, of all't me. A worker of boundless energy and enormous talent, he won the admiration 'of the world for his outstanding achievements in many different fields. Scholar, tea< her, linguist, diplomat and saintly pastor of souls, his reign would have been notable had he excelled in only one of these roles. That he was everywhere acclaimed for extraordinary at tainments in them all, places his Pontificate at the very forefront of epochs. Plis Pontificate presents a striking contrast. Although he was universally known as the Pope of Peace, the beginning of his reign saw the most wide spread and destructive war man kind has yet known, while its latter years witnessed, an un easy truce, marked by the ruth less and relentless persecution of the Church in an ever-length ening list of nations. He was a great leader in the world’s struggle against com munism. In 1948 his fatherly warnings saved Italy from Red seizure. His message to Catho lics behind the iron curtain gave them hope in their battle to pre serve the faith in their home lands. His 1949 decree excom municating members of the Communist Party and those who help to spread its propa ganda was one of the most tell ing blows yet struck against the forces of the Kremlin. REMARKABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS As a student he won high honors, earning three doctorates while hardly more than a youth. Appointed a full professor be fore he was 30, he later gave up teaching for diplomacy. His long and successful diplo matic career reached its peak when he became Papal Secre tary of State in 1930. He was probably the best known Pope who ever reigned. More widely travelled than any previous Pontiff, he also receiv ed more people from more dif ferent parts of the world than any of his predecessors. Fluent in seven languages, he could speak to most of the vast number of people he met in their native tongue. First Roman Pope in two cen turies, he gave contemporary, meaning to his ancient title of: Defender of the City when his : intervention in World War II saved Rome from destruction. He created more Cardinals at one time than any other Pope and brought the Sacred College up to full strength for the first time in 250 years. He granted representation in the College to all continents for the first time and gave Cardinals to more na tions than any previous Pontiff. He decreed the Holy Year of 1950, during which 3,000.000 pilgrims from all parts of the world flocked to Rome to re ceive the Holy Year indulgenc es and pray for the return of those outside the Church. His proclamation of the doc trine of the Assumption of Our Lady was the first Papal defini tion of a dogma in close to a century. He granted limited permission for evening Masses in all na tions, liberalized the Eucharistic fast, and revived the ancient Easter vigil service. He proclaimed the Marian Year of 1954 to mark the 100th anniversary of the promulga tion of the dogma of the Immac ulate Conception. He decreed the feast of the Queenship of Mary, and the feast of St. Joseph the _Work- man. " FIRST ROMAN IN 200 YEARS Pope Pius XII, first native- born Roman to rise to the Pap acy since the election of Inno cent XIII in 1721, was born March 2, 1876, the son of Filippo and Virginia (Graziosi) Pacelli. He was christened two days lat er in the Church of Saints Cel- sus and Julian by his uncle, Msgr. Giuseppe Pacelli. He was born into an aristo cratic Roman family which had long rendered service to the Holy See. Both his father and his grandfather had served the Vatican in official posts. His bro ther was chief Vatican nego tiator of the treaties that solved the Roman Question. As a youth the future Pontiff attended the grammar school of the French Sisters of Providence and then went to high school at the Ennio Quirino Visconti Ly ceum, from which he was grad uated with honors in 1893 at the age of 17. Deciding to become a priest, he entered the Capranica Col lege, the oldest seminary in Rome. He was able to remain there only a year, however, be cause delicate health made com munity life too difficult for him. He then returned to his family and attended the Roman Semi nary and the Pontifical Univer sity as a day student. In 1899 he was given doctorates in philoso phy and theology. TAKES THIRD DOCTORATE He was ordained the same year and celebrated his first 1 Mass in the Basilica of St. Mary Major. Following his ordination he was appointed assistant pas tor of his parish church, Santa Maria in Vallicella. While in this post he finished his studies, earning a doctorate, his third, in canon law. He then entered two major fields of activity. He was made assistant professor of law at the Roman Seminary and an ap prentice in the Vatican Secre tariate of State. Shortly after-j ward he was appointed a full professor Of canon law at the Roman Seminary, a professoi of diplomacy'at the Academy o: Nobles, and an official in the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, a body closely connected with the Sec retariate of State. Father Pacelli soon resigne as a professor to devote himselt full time to his duties at th: Congregation. He remainei I there for the next ten yegp»r working on the recodification of canon law. He was named a Domestic Prelate in 1905 and made Secretary of the Congre gation in 1914. He served in that post during the early part of World War I. For three years his job was to direct the Vaticans’ relief work —encouraging the exchange of war prisoners, helping to get wounded soldiers moved to hos pitals, and sending information about missing troops to their families. ENTERS DIPLOMATIC CORPS When the Papal Nunciature in Bavaria fell vacant in 1917 Msgr. Pacelli was named to the post. He was appointed Titular Archbishop of Sardi in April and consecrated in the Sistine Chapel by Pope Benedict XV on May 13. Shortly after his arrival in Munich Archbishop Pacelli was called upon to participate in one of the Holy See’s most im portant diplomatic efforts of the war. In August, 1917, Benedict XV issued his famous peace proposals. It was the Nuncio’s duty to present the proposals personally to Kaiser Wilhelm II. But the German emperor turned them down and the war con tinued. After the war Archbishop Pacelli stayed in Munich, where he faced grave danger by re maining at his post during the radical Spartacist uprising. Once he was obliged to differ with an officer of the revolu tionary militia who, as he ar gued with the Nuncio, leveled a pistol at him. When a Nunciature for all of Germany was set up in Berlin in 1920, Archbishop Pacelli was named first Nuncio. In that post he negotiated two concordats, one with Bavaria in 1925, and one with Prussia in 1929. Although preoccupied with diplomatic duties, the Nuncio al ways kept himself informed on national Eucharistic Congress in I uenos Aires and in 1935 to t le ceremonies in Lourdes to mark the end of the Holy Year j reclaimed by Pius XI in com- i lemoration of the 19th century df the Redemption. In 1935 he i ms also appointed Chamberlain f the Holy Roman Church. In he period between the death of ja Pope and the election of his Successor, the Cardinal Cham berlain is the head of the Sac red College. It is up to him to verify the Pope’s death, direct preparations for the conclave and take charge of it. Most notable of the Cardinal’s I many voyages was his tour of the United States during Oc tober, 1936. His airplane trip I from New York to the Pacific / Coast and back was unprece dented in the visits of world dignitaries to America at that time. While in this country he visited the four American Card inals, personally met most of the Hierarchy, and was seen by many thousands of Catholic lay men. He received honorary de crees from four universities and before leaving was the luncheon guest of President Roosevelt. After his return to Rome he said that his travels in the United States had left one of the deep est impressions of his life and that he would always have the warmest memories of his trip — named a Legate for the fourth time, representing the Holy Fa ther at the Eucharistic Congress in Budapest. ELECTED POPE In February, 1939, Pius XI died. As Chamberlain, Cardinal Pacelli certified the Pope’s death and took charge of ar rangements to elect his succes sor. Before the conclave met. the nazi and fascist presses started a vicious campaign in an at tempt to dictate the choice of the new Pontiff. Their main tar get was Cardinal Pacelli. His name headed a list of “political” and anti-fascist — hence unac ceptable — candidates in the newspaper of Count Ciano. then Italy’s foreign minister. The nazi press of Germany call ed him a member of a “Vatican war party” and “a traitor be longing to a degenerate genera tion of a dying bourgeoisie.” But the campaigns were futile. On March 2, on the third ballot, he won the votes of 61 of the 62 Cardinals in conclave. Only his own vote had been cast for an other candidate. So, on his 63rd birthday, in one of the shortest conclaves in history, Cardinal Pacelli was elected Supreme Pontiff and chose the name of Pius XII. He was the first Papal Secretary of State to be named Pope since Clement IX wj LAST PICTURE—This picture of His Holiness Pope Pius XII at prayer in his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo was taken October 5, the day before he was stricken with “cerebral circulatory disturbances.” Shown behind the Pope is Msgr. Federico Callori di Vignale, papal Master of Chambers. This is a radio photo.—(NC Photos). He was sent to France in 1937 as Legate to the blessing of the Lisieux Basilica built in honor of St. Therese. While there he was received by President Le brun. The next year he was Pius XII was crowned March 12, 1939. The heads of some 40 states sent representatives, in cluding for the first time the -Unit'eA-St.ates. After his corona tion the Pope’s'TFiTmglils agSirT turned to peace when he said: “Nothing is lost by peace, all may be lost by war. . .Let the strong and mighty listen to Us and use their power not for destruction but for construc tion.” The Holy Father’s words, however, went unheeded. Bare ly six months after his election German soldiers invaded Po land and World War II began. On the eve of the invasion His Holiness had made one last effort to avert the conflict. Calling the envoys of Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy into audience, he sent a message through them to the heads of their governments ask- a chance "the-gojltical, social and religious. prgFtpd 1667. His election, first to be anj nounced to the world by radi life of the country. Indeed, it was his concern for these as pects of German life that ac counted for his great success there. So enduring was his pres tige throughout the country- that on his 75th birthday in 1951, Munich renamed one of its main streets Pacelli Strasse, as Berlin had done in 1949. CARDINAL SECRETARY OF STATE Archbishop Pacelli was recall ed from Berlin in 1929 and cre ated a Cardinal by Pope Pius XI at the December 16 Consis tory. In February, 1930, less than two months after his elevation to the Sacred College, Cardinal Pacelli was named Papal Secre tary of State. One of his first acts as Secretary was to nego tiate an agreement with the Italian government regarding the interpretation of the 1929 Concordat, thus eliminating dis sensions that had arisen with the Mussolini regime. The Cardinal was sent as Pap al Legate in 1934 to the Inter- was everywhere greeted wit enthusiasm. In Rome crowi jammed St. Peter’s Square ti cheer their first native Pontiff in more than two centuries. B{ - yond the' Eternal City his ele< - tion was particularly popula r since he was known personally by many thousands of people in many countries. He had lived in Germany for 12 years, passed most of his vacations in Switzer ■ land, and visited Spain, France England, Austria and Hungary in Europe as well as Argentina Brazil, Uruguay and the Unitec States in the new world. WORK FOR PEACE But probably the chief reason for his popularity was the gen eral feeling and hope that h4 would continue his predecessor’^ work for peace. These hope| were justified. In his first state) ment as Pope, made on the day after his election, he said: “The fairest of all God’s gifts, whic|i passes all understanding, is . peace.” ing them to “abstain from tak ing any steps capable of aggra vating the present tension.” But to no avail. World War II was a tremend ous trial for the Pope. War it self, with its sufferings and death, grieved him. Nor was he far from personal danger. The fate of Rome, though declared an open city, long hung in the balance. When bombs finally did fall on the city, he went out into the streets to give en couragement to the people, thus earning anew his age-old title of Defender of the City. On Chirstmas Eve, 1939, he presented the warring nations with a set of conditons on which they might have ended their conflict and established a jus' peace. His conditions were in dependence for all nations, lib eration of all nations from the slavery of armaments, recon struction of international insti tutions to remove past deficie ncies, examination of the real needs and just demands of peo ples and nations, including ethnic minorities, and a sincere' return to the immutable princi ples of divine law: In succeding Christmas messages during and W 3 g after the war these points were "Clarified and expanded. HELP TO WAR VICTIMS To alleviate some of the suf ferings caused by war the Holy Father established the Vatican Information Service. Its branch offices in nations throughout the world gave to countless persons their first and frequently their only news of relatives taken prisoners of war. The Service was free and used by people , of all nationalities and religions. Several million messages were channelled through the Service during the war, including more than half a million to the United States. Besides setting up the Infor mation Service, the Pope gave large sums of money to relieve war-caused distress. He gave nearly $1,000,000 for Polish re lief. English Bishops got more than $100,000 to restore bombed churches. He sent more than $60,000 to heavily damaged Malta. These, however, are but a few of his gifts. Even larger amounts were sent to France, Belgium and the Netherlands. was the feeding of the destitute in and around Rome. Allied authorities reported that the Holy See had provided a meal a day for 40,000 people, thus preventing thousands of from starvation. While the Allied armies were in Rome His Holiness showed himself willing to receive all who wished to call on him. One day alone he saw 8,000 soldiers. By the end of the war it was estimated that he had been seen by some 1,200,000 Allied troops, most of them Americans. 1946 CONSISTORY On account of the difficulty of gathering consistories during the war, the College of Cardinals had fallen to only 38 members by 1945. In February, 1946, Pius XII created 32 new Cardinals. It was the largest single eleva tion in history These persecutions reached a peak with the imprisonment on trumped-up charges of Cardinal Stepinac in Yugoslavia, Car dinal Mindszenty in Hungary, Cardinal Wyszynski in Poland and Archbishop Beran in Czech oslovakia. EXCOMMUNICATION OF COMMUNISTS In July, 1949, Pius XII issued a decree excommunicating all j Catholics who “knowingly and of free will” join or remain in the Communist party or in any way read or promote communist propaganda. The decree was con sidered as one of the most far reaching of modern times. For although the Church had con demned communism for a cen tury, preaching against its er rors and evils, the Pop’s decree was the first act aimed at the individuals. In January, 1952, the Pontiff sent the first of his apostolic letters to the priests and people of China, which had fallen to the communists in 1949. It was similar to letters the Pope had sent earlier to Catholics in other Red-dominated lands. Express ing his grief at their persecu tion, the Holy Father warned China’s Catholics not to be mis led by the Reds and asked the: to offer their sufferings to God, Another letter was sent earl; in 1955 in which the Pope r peated his exhortations to t Chinese. In addition to his troubles witfi communism, Pius XII also faced a period of unrest in the Holi ~Land the postwar yearsi- In the war which broke out between the Arabs and the new state of. Israel in 1948, many Christian shrines and churches were damaged and destroyed and free Christian access to the Holy Places was endangered. In 1948 the Pope issued the encylical “In Muitiplicibus” call- Jatholic map of the world,” the D ope raised to the rank of Car- linal a large number of non- Italians, reducing Italians in the College to a minority for the first time in 600 years. Of the new Princes of the Church, only four were from Italy. The remaining 28 came from 18 dif ferent countries, including China and Portuguese Africa. Thus for the first time all continents had a Cardinal. With the naming of four American Cardinals the United States had five members of the College for the first time. In 1947 in the Apostolic Con stitution “Provida Mater Eccle- sia,” His Holiness gave canoni cal recogniton to secular insti tutes. These institutes, which originated in the 19th century, are associations of men and women who continue their nor mal lives in the world without living the community life of religious but who consecrate their lives to God. BATTLE AGAINST... COMMUNISM While the battle fought against nazism and fascism by Pius XII came to an end with the war’s close, his struggle against com munism was intensified with the coming of peace. In 1948 communism set out to capture Catholic Italy. The Italian election of that year was one of the crucial events of Pius XII’s regin. With an estimated 2,000,000 members, the Italian Communist Party was widely considered to be the largest' outside of Russia itself. Its lead ers were certain that they could take over the country and many neutral observers thought so too. The Reds, however, suffered a resounding defeat. The Holy Father had calmly reminded the country’s Catholics of their duty to vote and to vote for parties that were not anti-Christian. The faithful went to the polls and dealt communist expecta tions a severe blow by electing a strongly anti-Red parliament. But while the communist ad vance in the west appeared to have been stopped, Reds struck heavy blows at the Church as they took over country after country in eastern Europe. Churches and schools were closed, the Catholic press ban ned, and the faithful hounded Another Papal war charity until their lives were in danger. ing for the internatonalization of Jerusalem and vicinity, and protection of Christians rights there. In 1947 the United States had made a similar recommen dation, but nothing had been done to implement it. In 1949 Pope Pius issued another ency clical “Redemptoris Nostri,” calling anew for Jerusalem’s internationalization. Again no definite steps were taken. Jerusalem is still divided be tween Arab and Jew and the right of free Christian access to the Holy Places is still uncertain. POSTWAR RELIEF EFFORTS During the Arab-Israeli war hundreds of thousands of Arabs 'fled their homes in Palestine and sought refuge in neighboring countries. Distressed by their plight, the Holy Father appealed to the world’s Catholics to come to their aid. To administer that aid he set up the Pontifical Mission for Palestine, through which large amounts of food, clothing and medicine were dis tributed to Arab D. P.’s, both Christian and Moslem. After the war as during it the Pope did all he could to ease the. suffering of its victims. Aid to the Arabs was a small part of the Holy Father’s total re lief effort. Shortly after war’s end, for example, truck convoys left the Vatican for western Germany to aid the huge masses of refugees then pouring into that area. Large relief ship ments were sent periodically to some 50 nations throughout the world. In another attempt to solve the D. P. problem the Pope sought to find new homes for refugees and to provide means for their emigration. He told nations with surplus land that it was their duty to place it at the disposal of the landless. He organized the Vatican Migration Bureau to aid emigrants, and in 1951 the International Catholic. Migration Commission was established at his request. Nor were his relief efforts restricted to those uprooted and left restitute by war. He also sent frequent gifts of money and goods to victims of natural dis asters, to the poor and orphans, both Catholic and non-Catholic, all over the world. In Italy the Pontifical Relief Commission set up a huge welfare program which included the establish ment of thousands of camps with enough space to give summer vacations to 1,000,000 needy chil dren. THE HOLY YEAR On Holy Thursday, 1949, Pius XII decreed the 1950 Holy Year. He urged Catholics everywhere to make a pilgrimage to Rome, to pray and do penance during the year that those outside the Church might return to it. During 1950 more than 3.000,- 1000 pilgrims from the four cor oners of the earth flocked to Rome to receive the Holy Year ndulgences and witness the nany special events that took )lace there. In February, 1950, Pope Pius XII received in audience dele gates to the International Con tention of the Catholic Press neeting in Vatican City. He ad- Iressed them on the importance }f the Catholic Press in forming ublic opinion. Among the most important of these events were the eight canonizations and eight beatifi cations in St. Peter’s. There were also international congresses of Catholic scholars, missionaries, journalists, musicians and many other groups as well as exhibi tions in such fields as Church art, architecture and literature. In addition to the events in Rome, numerous Holy Year observances were held in other cities throughout the world. Highlights of the Holy Year —was the Popes’ proclamation of the doctrine of the Assumption of Our Lady. It was the first Papal definition of a dogma since Pius IX’s proclamation of the Immaculate Conception in 1854. The most recent previous doctrine to be added to the body of defined truth — Papal infal libility — had been proclaimed by the Vatican Council in 1870. On Christmas Eve, 1950, the Holy Year in Rome came to an end. But the next day the Pope extended it to the entire world. Catholics of all nations were given a chance to gain the Holy Year indulgences in 1951 with out going to Rome — by making a pilgrimage to churches in their own dioceses designated by their Bishop. MORE NEW CARDINALS Late in 1952, by which time the College of Cardinals had fallen to 46 members, Pius XII called the second consistory ox his reign. Fie elevated 24 pre lates from 12 nations to the rank of Cardinal, thus bringing the Sacred College up to its full strength of 70 for the first time in some 250 years. Following the 1953 consistory more countries had a Cardinal than ever before in history. Four nations — Columbia, Ecuador, India and Yugoslavia — were given their first Cardinals. Two of the new members, Cardinal. Stepinac and Cardinal Wyszyn ski, were unable to come to the consistory because of commun ist persecution of religion in their homelands. Pius XII, who had already named more Americans to be Cardinals than any other Pope, gave the United Sates still another, the first to represent a West Coast See. LITURGICAL DECREES A few days previous to the consistory the Holy Father had issued a history-making decree granting limited permission for evening Masses everywhere in the world, and liberalizing the Eucharistic fast. Among the other liturgical innovations in troduced by Pius XII was the revival of the ancient Easter vigil service. He permitted its use after centuries of non- observances in 1951. HONORS CHURCH IN U. S. In October, 1953, the Pontiff honored the Church in the United States by personally tak ing part in the dedication of the new North American Col lege in Rome. It marked the first time that the Pope had opened a national college. At about this time His Holi ness showed a remarkable range of knowledge in talks he gave to different groups gathered in Rome for conventions. Within the space of a few weeks he gave some 25 speeches on pro fessional or similar topics to silk manufacturers, wine grow ers, merchants, statisticians, goldsmiths, navigators, engin eers, bankers, foundrymen and others. Early in 1954 the Pope be came ill, but both before his illness and after his slow re covery he continued his strenu ous work. In addition to radio addresses to a number of nation al Marian congresses, he con tinued to speak to professional and other groups throughout the year on such subjects as popula tion problems, medicine and medical ethics, the press, educa tion, tailoring, modern techno logy, radio and television. In June he spoke in five languages in an address closing the first telecast in Europe over an inter national TV hookup. Television, he said, should serve as a “sym bol and promise” of European unity. In August, 1954, it was an nounced that at the request of the American Hierarchy the Holy Father had permitted the use of English instead of Latin in the United States in certain sections of the ceremonies of baptism, marriage, extreme unction and others. MARIAN YEAR In proclaming 1954 a Marian Year •— to mark the 100th an niversary of the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception — Pius XII sought to foster greater devotion to the Mother of God. The purpose was not to attract pilgrims to Rome, but to stimulate religious life everywhere and pray to the Blessed Virgin for peace. Outstanding events of the Marion Year in Rome were the canonization of St. Pius X on May 29, and of five other new saints on June 12, and the pro clamation of the feast of the Queenship of Mary by the Pope in October. Twice during 1954 the Holy Father gave major addresses on the ever recurring theme of his Pontificate — peace. In his Easter radio message he called for international agreements to outlaw atomic, biological and chemical warfare. In the fall he again appealed to nations to do everything in their power to avert atomic war, saying that “there can be no doubt . . .that to unleash it without a just cause . . .would constitute a crime worthy of the most severe national and international sanc tions.” Earlier in the year, receiving 350 prelates in special audience, His Holiness had noted that the (Continued on Page Three) ©lie Hulletin 416 8TH ST., AUGUSTA, GA. Published fortnightly by the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia, Inc., with the Approbation of the Most Reverend Arch bishop-Bishop of Savannah, The Most Reverend Bishop of Atlanta and the Right Reverend Abbot Ordinary of Belmont. Subscription price $3.00 per year. Second class mail privileges authorized at Monroe, Georgia. Send notice of change of address to P. O. Box 320, Monroe, Georgia. REV. FRANCIS J. DONOHUE REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN Editor Savannah Edition Editor Atlanta Edition JOHN MARKWALTER Managing Editor Vol. 39 Saturday, October 18, 1958 No.'10 ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1957-1958 GEORGE GINGELL, Columbus President E. M. HEAGARTY, Waycross Honorary Vice-President MRS. DAN HARRIS, Macon Vice-President TOM GRIFFIN, Atlanta Vice-President NICK CAMERIO, Macon Secretary JOHN T. BUCKLEY, Augusta Treasurer ALVIN M. McAULIFFE, Augusta Auditor JOHN MARKWALTER, Augusta Executive Secx-etary MISS CECILE FERRY, Augusta Financial Secretary