The Holy See has always been, and still is greatly preoccupied, out of a   
heart filled with constant solicitude, with the fate of civil populations   
         defenceless against the agressions of war.         
 
                                                            
 
 
Since the outbreak of the present conflict no year has passed, that We   
have not appealed in Our public utterances to all the belligernets,- men   
who also have human hearts moulded by a mother's love- to show some   
feeling of pity and charity for the sufferings of civilians, for helpless   
women and children, for the sick and the aged, on whom a rain of terror,   
fire, destruction and havoc pours down out of a guiltless sky.   
(Nov. 1940, Easter 1941). Our appeal was little heeded, as the world   
knows, and tens of thousands know their own personal grief. 
 
                                                            
 
We lay Our appeal, therefore, before you in behalf of countless human   
beings, children of our one, same Father in heaven; and if aerail   
bombardments must continue to form part of this harrowing war, let them   
with all possible care be directed only against objects of military value   
and spare the homes of noncombattants and the treasured shrines of art   
                       and religion.                        
 
                     September 26, 1942