Acta Pii Pp. XII 381

nations. It were indeed futile to promise long life to any building erected

on shifting sands or a craçked and crumbling base. The foundations,

We know, of such a peace-the truth finds expression once again in the

letter of Your Excellency-can be secure only if they rëst on bed-rock faith

in the one, true God, the Creator öf all men. It was He who of necessity

assigned man's purpose in life ; it is f rom Hirn, with conséquent neces-

sity, that man derives personal, imprescriptible rights to pur sue that

purpose and to be unhindered in the attainment of it. Civil society is

also of divine origin and indicated by nature itself ; but it is subséquent

to man and meant to be a means to défend him and to help him in the

legitímate exercise of his Godgiven rights. Once the State, to the exclu-

sion of God, makes itself the source of the rights of the human person,

man is forthwith reduced to the condition of a slave, of a mere civic

commodity to be exploited for the selfish aims of a group that happens

to have power. The order of God is overturned ; and history surely makes

it clear to those who wish to read, that the inevitable resuit is thé subver-

sion of order between peoples, is war. The task, then, before the friends

of peace is clear.

Is Your Excellency over-sanguine in hoping to find men throughout

the world ready to cooperate for such a worthy enterprise? We think

not. Truth has lost none of its power to rally to its cause the most

enlightened minds and noblest spirits. Their ardour is f ed by the flanie

of righteous freedom struggling to break through injustice and lying.

But those who possess the truth must be conscientious to define it clearly

when its foes cleverly distort it, bold to défend it and generous enough

to set the course of their lives, both national and personal, by its dic-

tâtes. This will require, moreover, correcting not a few aberrations.

Social injustices, racial injustices and religious animosities exist today

among men and groups who boast of Christian civilization, and they

are a very useful and often effective weapon in the hands of those who

are bent on destròying ali the good which that civilization has brought

to man. It is for all sincere lo ver s of the great human family to unite

in wresting those weapons from hostile hands. With that union will

come hope that the enemies of God and free men will not prevail.

Certainly Your Excellency and ali defenders of the rights of the

human person will find whole-hearted coopération from God's Church.

Faithful custodian of eternai Thruth and loving mother of ali, from

her foundation almost two thousand years ago, she has championed

the individuai again st despotic rule, the labouring-man against oppres-

sion, Religion against persécution. Her divinely-given mission often