There is another matter also which compels Us to ask that the Sacred
College of Cardinals, you, Venerable Brethren, all priests and nuns,
the sick and disabled, our innocent children, and all Christians
address earnest and suppliant prayers to Jesus Christ and His most
loving Mother. It is this: that those who, in great measure, hold the
future of nations in their hands consider attentively the dangerous
pass to which our age has come. Be these nations large or small,
their legitimate rights and their inheritance of spiritual riches are
sacred and must be safeguarded.
16. Therefore We pray God that their rulers may carefully weigh and
consider the causes of dissension and endeavor in good faith to
remove them. They must, above all, realize that war (God keep it from
us!) can have only one result, vast ruins everywhere, and thus cannot
be the object of anyone's reliance. They must adapt to the needs of
men of today the laws which regulate the state and society and which
bind together nations and classes of society. They must be mindful of
the eternal laws which come from God and are the bases and pivots of
all government. Finally, they must be ever aware that the individual
souls of men are created by God and destined to possess and enjoy Him.
17. It must also be remarked that there are current today certain
schools of thought and philosophy and certain attitudes toward the
practical conduct of life which cannot possibly be reconciled with
the teachings of Christianity. This impossibility We shall never
cease from asserting in firm and unambiguous, though also calm terms.
But God wishes the welfare of men and of nations! [Cf. Wisd. 1, 14]
18. And so We hope that men will set aside those sterile postulates
and assumptions, hard as rock and just as inflexible, which rise from
a way of thinking and acting that is infected with laicism and
materialism, and that they will find a complete cure in that sound
doctrine which experience makes more certain with every day that
passes. We mean that doctrine which attests that God is the author of
life and its laws, that He is guarantor of the rights and dignity of
the human person. God then is "our refuge and our Redemption." [Sacred Liturgy]
19. Our thoughts turn to all the lands of this earth. We see all
mankind striving for a better future; We see the awakening of a
mysterious force, and this permits Us to hope that men will be drawn
by a right conscience and a sense of duty to advance the real
interests of human society. That this goal may be realized in the
fullest sense--that is, with the triumph of the kingdom of truth,
justice, peace, and charity--We exhort all Our children in Christ to
be "of one heart and one soul" [Acts 4:32] and to pour out ardent
prayers in October to our Queen in heaven and our loving Mother,
reflecting upon the words of the Apostle: "In all things we suffer
tribulation, but we are not distressed; we are sore pressed, but we
are not destitute; we endure persecution, but we are not forsaken; we
are cast down, but we do not perish; always bearing about in our body
the dying of Jesus, so that the life also of Jesus may be made
manifest in our bodily frame." [2 Cor. 4:8-10]
excerpts, Grata Recordatio
Pope John XXIII
September 26, 1959
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Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue
with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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