COPY                            
                     TO HIS EXCELLENCY                      
                 FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT                  
         PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA          
 
                                                            
 
 
                       PIUS D.D. XII                        
 
                                                            
 
 
In being elected for a third term to the Presidency of the United States  
of America, at a time of such grave moment for the life of nations, Your   
ency has received from your country a singular proof of conf
 
                                                            
 
 
The personal relations had with Your Excellency on the occasion of our  
visit to the United States, when we were Cardinal Secretary of State to the  
late lamented Supreme Pontiff, and the gracious reception you extended to us,  
put us in the way to appreciate your generous spirit; and today, while we  
offer you congratulations, we pray Almighty God to guide your mind and heart  
in the noble and arduous task of leading a free and vigorous people for the  
 greater stability of universal order, justice, and peace.  
 
                                                            
 
 
A tangible proof of these generous dispositions we have had in your   
sending His Excellency Mr. Myron Taylor to Us, as your personal Representative  
with rank of Ambassador Extraordinary.  Special circumstances have interrupted  
his presence with us; but we like to hope that the plan for the attainment  
 of those high ideals you had in mind may yet be realized.  
 
                                                            
 
 
Indeed, We are not unaware of the efforts which you made to prevent the  
catastrophic struggle that is heaping up ruin and sorrow for a great part of  
the Old World; and in our paternal solicitude for suffering humanity there is  
nothing we desire more ardently than to see true peace return at long last   
among peoples, who have been too long and too painfully stricken and afflicted;  
-that true peace, we mean, that will adjust all wrongs, that will recognize  
with well-judged equity the vital necessities of all, and thus mark for the   
world the beginning of a new era of tranquility, collaboration and progress  
eoples under the longed-for reign of christian justice and c
 
                                                            
 
 
While we renew the expression of Our good wishes for you personally and  
for the nation over which you preside, we invoke on both an abundance of  
                      God's blessings.                      
 
                                                            
 
 
Given at Rome, from the Palace of the Vatican, the twentieth day of december,   
            the second year of our Pontificate.