MEMORANDUM OF                        
 
                                                            
 
                 HIS HOLINESS POPE PIUS XII                 
 
                                                            
 
                             RE                             
 
                                                            
 
                BOMBING CIVILIAN POPULATIONS                
 
                                                            
 
                     SEPTEMBER 26 1942                      
 
                                                            
 
 
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 defenseless against the aggressions 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 belligerents, - 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 to their own personal grief.         
 
                                                            
 
 
Now We have been asked to take occasion of this visit of Your Excellency to   
repeat Our  appeal in a personal way, and to ask you to carry it to your   
esteemed President of the United States, of whom Your Excellency is so   
worthy and so valued a Representative. To refuse to comply with such a   
request would seem to bespeak little confidence in the noble sentiments of  
Christian brotherhood and generous sympathy for innocent victims of wrong,   
ch Your Excellency and the President have given conspicuous 
 
                                                            
 
 
We lay Our appeal, therefore, before you in behalf of countless human   
beings, children of our one, same Father in heaven; and if aerial   
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 non-combattants and the treasured shrines of art   
                       and religion.