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The author, for gears correspondent at the Vatican, interprets from authoritative sources the peace plan which the Pope hopes to see realizeb
Poland had just been conquered by
Germany when Pope Pius XII, in keeping with the tradition of the Roman Pontiffs, presented to the world a FivePoint Peace Programme which was contained in his 1939 Christmas mesIn subsequent addresses, notsage. ably the one delivered to the Sacred College of Cardinals on December 24, encyclical "Summi 1941, and in his Pontificatus,' the Pope amplified his conception of a "just and honorable peace" in accordance with Christian principles. He advocated the right to life and economic independence of all nations, Mibig and small, strong and weak. norities, he said, must be protected natural access to and not oppressed: world wealth must be given to all nations on the basis of a just distribution; treaties must he respected; general disarmament achieved; peaceful methods for the settlement of international problems adopted. In his conception a peace which is based on force, that is, the armed superiority of a victor nation over the vanquished, is ephemeral and bound It would inevitably plunge to fail. the world into a third catastrophe. The rebuilding of the post-war world cannot be conceived without moral principles, and the solution of international problems must be approached on a plane which excludes pride, hatred, ambition, in order to consider only the real human values. In other words, the Pontiff maintains that either peace will be Christian-that is, in accordance with the eternal principles of
Christian morals-or there will be no peace.
In the following lines the writer will
attempt to give what he believes to be the Vatican interpretation of the five papal points, in the light of conversations held authoritative with Vatican prelates while he was in Rome, and of officially inspired articles which have appeared from time to time in the "Osservatore Romano." The Right to Life of All Nations. The first point of the papal programme, which was outlined in the 1939 Christmas message, was further expanded in December, 1941. In
order that the life and independence of nations he respected, no attempt must
action within which the state affirms its will in its relation with the other members of the interis as a sphere of
national community, Independence is therefore the freedom of a state in its relation with other states, and excludes all foreign interference. Without
RELIGION AND ITS INFLUENCE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS be made to curtail "freedom and ter-
ritorial integrity," the Pope said. Freedom is held by the Vatican to be a natural right. It is necessary because without freedom there is no responsibility. State freedom implies autonomy and independence. Autonomy is intended as internal sovereignty which is exercised within the territorial limits and in the relations between state and citizen. Independence is intended as external sovereignty, that
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freedom there is no independrice, and independence without security is only fictitious independence. However, that forPign policy which considers the particular advantage of a people as the exclusive aim of state action runs counter to the reciprocity of rights and duties between nations. It denies healthy international co-operation which tends to achieve the common good in the family of nations.
Freedom and territorial integrity must
be secure in order to be fruitful. This feeling of security may be found only in a clear conception of international justice and in the avowed respect of other nations' rights, which create the indispensable atmosphere for construc-
tive action. Lack of security is the curse of international relations. DoctrinOs which uphold the right of force are to be condemned because they take into account only physical capacity and not ethical values which predominate in the conscience of the individual regardless of his material strength. Right-in the world of moral relations-has a value of its own which is not related to the greater or lesser capacity of asserting it because those who are wrong may also Consequently, force have strength. should not be used as an instrument of foreign policy except, of course, in the For this case of legitimate defence reason the Pope affirms that "the will Continued on Page 4.)
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