Pope Pius XII - 1944
Democracy And A Lasting Peace[this must have been a very difficult message to write as the forces of the democratic world descended upon fascist Europe]
It is essential reading - there is too much of relevance to quote, but this should spur your interest. It reads a bit like a farewell to the politics of the pre-war Era:
THE PROBLEM OF DEMOCRACY
11. Moreover — and this is perhaps the most important point — beneath the sinister lightning of the war that encompasses them, in the blazing heat of the furnace that imprisons them, the peoples have, as it were, awakened from a long torpor. They have assumed, in relation to the state and those who govern, a new attitude — one that questions, criticizes, distrusts.
[end quote]
How difficult it must have been for young allied soldiers to have to 1) fight fascism in Old Europe 2) remain Catholic politically on a traditional basis. Pius XII clearly felt this ...
