Religious persecution and oppression of minorities must have no place in the world of the future, declared Pope Pius XII in his annual Christmas Eve message last night.
As two points of a five-point program for future world peace the Pope listed:
1. No oppression of minorities.
2. No persecution directed against religious sects or churches, because “faith is one of the rights of mankind.”
“There can be no new order without freedom and equality of rights of all people,” the Pope said. “It is for the great Powers to collaborate so that no fresh evils may arise for mankind. It is not the first time,” he continued, “that people are involved in a fight for something which they think will be a new and better order and for which people have been thrown into misery which, in fact, turns out to be a stupid, vain distortion. The principles of freedom and equality of rights for all people must underlie that new day.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.