• The worship to be given to God. At first [observation necessary to restore society] concerns the very meaning of the worship to be given to God, a sense that in the last hundred years has become obscured even among the faithful. If in fact it happens at all times that in the sanctuary of personal religious life men seek and study to advance their own interests, this was seen beyond measure verified and proven under the influence of the proud and vain materialistic culture, who lorded over modern generations. They wanted to reduce the relationships between God and man to God's help in material and earthly situations; for the rest man wanted to do it himself as if he no longer needed divine support. The worship of God became a concept of the useful; religion fell from the sphere of the spirit into that of matter. Religious practice was limited to asking favors from heaven for the needs of the earth, almost reckoning with God; faith wavered, if the help did not respond to the desire. That religion and faith, above all else, mean worship and service of God; that there are Commandments of God, who always oblige, in every place and in all circumstances; that for the Christian the future life dominates and determines the earthly one; these concepts and these truths, which support and guide the intellect and will of the believer, they had become strangers to the thought and feeling of the human spirit. What remedy should be offered to this distortion?? It is necessary for the great truths and great concepts of faith to return, as life and reality, in all classes of the people, in high schools even more than in those who are disinherited and tried by poverty and poverty down here. There is perhaps no more urgent need than this in religious education at the present time, which not only demands it, but it also makes it easier to provide for it, because how much evil and misfortune humanity now experiences due to the decadence of morality and justice, comes to be a terribly open and painful correction of the false idea of God and of religion distorted in its practice. It has been said that the wonder of these years is the millions of faithful who honor God and serve him, submitted to his Commandments, although they found themselves in conditions of unspeakable hardship. Certainly such devout and fearless Christians, pride of the Church, there are, and yourselves, beloved children, you know quite a few; work with zeal, so that they may increasingly grow in number among the believers entrusted to your care.
• The sanctification of holidays. The worship of God, which in the course of human life should begin and end every day, However, it imposes special duties for the sanctification of the holidays; and here comes our second observation. The Church certainly cannot be reproached for wanting to apply the Sunday precept with excessive harshness, to her who determines and regulates it with that «benignitas et humanitas» [Cf. Tit., 3, 4], of which its divine Founder gave it an example. But against the profanation and secular transformation of the sacred day of Sunday, which at an increasing rate are stripping it of its religious character, and in this way they distance men from God, the Church, guardian of divine law, must oppose and face with holy firmness. Here too the zealous work of pastoral care, while using every mildness in cases of necessity and every consideration towards abnormal economic and social situations that cannot be changed all at once, must be broad and proceed in the following direction: Suspension of servile works on Sundays and other holy days of obligation, especially in public. The horrible destruction caused by the war appears to Christian piety as a frightening manifestation of the damage that having profaned Sunday has brought with it. But if from public life we enter private life, who doesn't see how appropriate it is for the family to also be educated to limit Sunday work to what is strictly necessary, so as to allow and grant to everyone, even to servants, holiday rest? The Church also has something to do against the absorption and distraction resulting from excessive "sport"., so that there is no time left for prayer, for meditation and rest; family members are forcibly separated from each other, children remain alienated and outside the supervision of their parents. Face without fear against those entertainments, which, like the immoral cinema, they turn Sunday into a day of sin. Finally he must give himself due rest and festive refreshment, which above all else benefits religious elevation, of spiritual renewal and the harmonious advancement of family life. It is true that the return to the sanctification of holidays in large modern cities requires heroic zeal and almost superhuman work from those who care for souls; however, much depends on this return on the more and better that is done not only for the health of the souls of the faithful, but also for the salvation of the family and for the restoration of social life against the dissolving forces of discontent, of the irritation and decay of the spirit in purely earthly and material things.
[Dal Speech of His Holiness Pius XII to the parish priests and Lenten followers of Rome, Tuesday 23 February 1944; cf. Speeches and Radio Messages of His Holiness Pius XII, V, Fifth year of Pontificate, 2 March 1943 – 1° March 1944, pp. 185-207. Vatican Polyglot Typography. Document full of infallible sentences and very current].
• The sanctification of holidays. The worship of God, which in the course of human life should begin and end every day, However, it imposes special duties for the sanctification of the holidays; and here comes our second observation. The Church certainly cannot be reproached for wanting to apply the Sunday precept with excessive harshness, to her who determines and regulates it with that «benignitas et humanitas» [Cf. Tit., 3, 4], of which its divine Founder gave it an example. But against the profanation and secular transformation of the sacred day of Sunday, which at an increasing rate are stripping it of its religious character, and in this way they distance men from God, the Church, guardian of divine law, must oppose and face with holy firmness. Here too the zealous work of pastoral care, while using every mildness in cases of necessity and every consideration towards abnormal economic and social situations that cannot be changed all at once, must be broad and proceed in the following direction: Suspension of servile works on Sundays and other holy days of obligation, especially in public. The horrible destruction caused by the war appears to Christian piety as a frightening manifestation of the damage that having profaned Sunday has brought with it. But if from public life we enter private life, who doesn't see how appropriate it is for the family to also be educated to limit Sunday work to what is strictly necessary, so as to allow and grant to everyone, even to servants, holiday rest? The Church also has something to do against the absorption and distraction resulting from excessive "sport"., so that there is no time left for prayer, for meditation and rest; family members are forcibly separated from each other, children remain alienated and outside the supervision of their parents. Face without fear against those entertainments, which, like the immoral cinema, they turn Sunday into a day of sin. Finally he must give himself due rest and festive refreshment, which above all else benefits religious elevation, of spiritual renewal and the harmonious advancement of family life. It is true that the return to the sanctification of holidays in large modern cities requires heroic zeal and almost superhuman work from those who care for souls; however, much depends on this return on the more and better that is done not only for the health of the souls of the faithful, but also for the salvation of the family and for the restoration of social life against the dissolving forces of discontent, of the irritation and decay of the spirit in purely earthly and material things.
[Dal Speech of His Holiness Pius XII to the parish priests and Lenten followers of Rome, Tuesday 23 February 1944; cf. Speeches and Radio Messages of His Holiness Pius XII, V, Fifth year of Pontificate, 2 March 1943 – 1° March 1944, pp. 185-207. Vatican Polyglot Typography. Document full of infallible sentences and very current].
