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Secondo una commovente tradizione, che risale al 1945, nel primo giorno di Quaresima il Sommo Pontefice Pio XII suole indirizzare un Suo speciale paterno Messaggio, per mezzo della Radio, agli alunni delle Scuole Cattoliche degli Stati Uniti d'America con l'invito a intensificare la loro generosa carità e le loro preghiere a vantaggio di milioni di coetanei che, in varie parti del mondo, in conseguenza delle guerre, si trovano in gravi strettezze e necessitano di molteplici aiuti. Sin dalle ore 9 del mercoledì delle Ceneri, 6 marzo 1957, nelle dette Scuole, dagli Stati dell'Est a quelli dell'Ovest, si succedono le trasmissioni che portano ovunque la nuova, affettuosa ed animatrice parola del Supremo Pastore.
Sua Santità parla al microfono nella Sala detta di San Giovanni al- l'Appartamento Pontificio. Sono presenti le Loro Eccellenze Revrh e i Monsignori Federico Canori di Vignale, Maestro di Camera e Angelo Dell'Acqua, Sostituto della Segreteria di Stato; e Reviho Monsignor Mario Nasalli Rocca di Corneliano, Cameriere Segreto Partecipante; il Padre Antonio Stefanizzi S. 7., Direttore della Stazione Radio del Vaticano; e il P. Tommaso O'Donnell S. 7., annunziatore per la lingua inglese. Intervenuto anche 11117,h- o e Revm- o Monsignor Andrew Landi, Direttore per l'Italia dei a Catholic Relief Services - N.C.W .C.».
Once again We come to talk with Our dear children in the United States, once again to spend, as it were, a few minutes in their midst, so that they may hear Our voice and know that all Our thoughts just now are of them. We said: « once again ». And yet for many of you this will be the first time you receive such a visit of the Holy Father into your schools; and many who listened to Us in former years are no longer with you. They have moved on to higher classes in more advanced schools; perhaps their school-days are over. So it happens; and so it will happen with you. Little boys and girls you are today, but soon,—and how soon you do grow up—you too will be moving on to higher classes in higher schools. And then? What then?
Some of you, perhaps, will be doctors, some will be lawyers, some will be engaged in business. Some of you, We like to think many of you will be priests. Oh, the Church needs so many more priests, holy priests, to carry on the redeeming work of Christ. And then some of you will be Sisters. What a noble vocation! What would the Church in your country have been without the good Sisters, so devoted, so self-sacrificing, so holy and understanding of the children? But their number is too, too small. Well, whatever vocation may claim you, this is true of you all: always you will all be children of God. You were made that at baptism. And you will be wanting to love and follow Jesus, Who died because He loved you and wanted to have you with Him for all eternity.
What would you not give to have a true picture of Him; to know Him just as He was, just as the Apostles saw Him on this earth. They knew the features of His face and the tone of His voice. They watched Him in His dealings with children and older folk. That was their privilege. But some of them, who saw Him and lived with Him, have told much about Him, much of what He did and said. You have heard of St. Peter, the Apostle whom Jesus selected to be head of His Church, to be first in a long line of Popes. Let Us teli you something that he once said. It was quite a few years after Our Lord had died and had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, that St. Peter was preaching a sermon. His new congregation was very keen to hear all about Jesus, whom they wanted to follow. And do you know how St. Peter summed up for them the lif e of the Lord? In this simple, short sentence: « He went about doing good » (Act. 10, 38). That is what St. Peter remembered most vividly about His Master. He went about doing good. Isn't that beautiful and interesting? Our Lord's days were spent amid every sort of human suffering and wretchedness. People throng about Him on every side. « Great crowds », St. Matthew says, « canne to Him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the deaf, the crippled and many besides, whom they laid at His feet, and He healed them all » (cfr. Matth. 21, 14; Luc. 6, 17-19). What a joyous multitude it was!—One day a funeral procession is passing; they are carrying to the cemetery the only son of a widowed mother. Don't cry, Jesus tells her. But, Lord, her heart is breaking with grief. Weep not! And He brings the boy back to life and gives him to his mother.—The lepers too are not afraid to approach Him. He really could cure them from a distance; but see, they are touching His robe, and He shows how pleased He is. He puts His hand on the piace of the leprosy and the dread disease is cured. He is at everyone's beck and cali. Though foot-sore and weary, yet you find Him as St. Peter remembered Him, going about to do good for suffering, needy man.
Our dear children, no one will expect you to do the wonderful and miraculous things your divine Lord did; but We do expect, your parents expect, your teachers expect, that you will go about in your own little world, at home, at school, in the playing fields, will go about doing good. Just now your zealous Bishops are asking you to do good in a very definite and praclical way. They are asking you to make your contribution to the immense good they plan to do for people in every part of the world, where men and women and children are in distress without home, without food, without medicine and clothes enough to protect them and keep them well. And what are you min to contribute?
First of all, your prayers, special prayers all during Lent, that God may grant to all nations that peace and prosperity, that will help them to have greater love for Him and for their fellow-men. Then during Lent you will be making so many little sacrifices, giving up some things you like to have; and the dimes you will be saving you will be so happy to give to the poor children who have so much less than you have of comfort and care and joy. Each year you children have been so generous. This year, We are sure, you are going to break all records. And the Lord Jesus, your closest friend, who loves you all so dearly, will be looking down on the Catholic schools in America and will recognize the children in them for His very own, when He sees that they, too, have resolved—and they are keeping their resolution—to go about doing good. And you will pray for the Holy Father, won't you?
And now We shall give you Our Apostolic Blessing. We give it to you; We give it to your loving parents, to your teachers; We give it with all the affection of Our heart; and through God's bounteous mercy, it will bring you, We are confident, His grace and manifold blessings.
*Discorsi e Radiomessaggi di Sua Santità Pio XII, XIX,
Diciannovesimo anno di Pontificato, 2 marzo 1957 - 1° marzo 1958, pp. 21-23
Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana; A.A.S., vol. XXXXIX (1957), n. 4, pp. 215-217.
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