-2-  #400, December 12, 6 p.m., from Vatican City.     
 
                                                            
 
 
respect to my appointment as your personal representative recalling the   
substance of the President's letter of Christmas 1939. the Pope had been   
doing penance for the last week in retreat and participated in a very   
moving penitential service on Sunday afternoon in St. Peters where he   
appeared in simple robes on foot bearing a wooden cross. His physician   
persuaded His Holiness to forego the service in bare feet. My mnay   
audiences have never before attained such a height of spiritual calm and   
faith in the omnipotent of diety. The Diplomatic Corps and a packed   
     cathedral joined in chanting prayers and litanies.     
 
                                                            
 
 
The audience this morning also extended into other fields   
concerning which, because of their secrecy and becuase they have only a   
general bearing upon present problems, do not require urgency of a message   
     but which I shall otherwise report in due course.      
 
                             TAYLOR                         
 
                            LMS