ADSS 1.200 Pius XII notes on prevention of war

ADSS 1.200 Pope Pius XII, notes

Reference: AES 6114/39; Edited version in L’Osservatore Romano, 15.09.1939

Location and date: Vatican, 13.09.1939

Summary statement: The Pope has done everything possible to prevent the war.

Language: Italian

Text:

An English newspaper (Manchester Guardian) has printed an article stating that during the last days preceding the war a number of telegrams were sent to the Holy Father asking him to call immediately and in person on the Chancellor of the Reich, Herr Hitler, and to visit the German and Polish nations in order to avoid cruel and wanton international slaughter. (1)

We are in a position to state that His Holiness up to the last moment has unceasingly tried to precent hostilities, not only through the initiatives already known to the public, but also through confidential and practical steps.  He has exhausted all possibilities which still gave some ope of maintaining peace or, at least, to exclude an immediate danger of war.

Notes: 

(1) George Glasgow, “Pope and Peace: Heroism and the Ordeal”, Manchester Guardian, 10.09.1939.