President of the United States of America
 
     
 
 
Our Secretary of State acknowledged at once by telegram the receipt of   
Your Excellency's message of the tenth instant, and he expressed Our grateful   
appreciation of the assurances given that the neutral status of the Vatican   
City as well as of the Papal domains throughout Italy will be respected during   
the military operations ahead.  
 
     
 
 
The neutrality of the Holy See strikes its roots deep in the very nature   
of Our Apstolic ministry, which places Us above any armed conflict between   
nations.  Yet it is this same God-given mission to safeguard and defend the   
eternal, spiritual interests of all men redeemed by Christ that makes us the   
more sensible of human pain and sorrow.  The war continues to multiply these   
sufferings a hundred-fold for so many millions of peace-loving, innocent men   
and women that our paternal heart can find no rest except in constant, increasing   
efforts to dry the tears of aging mother, of widow and orphaned children, and   
to hold back by every