Address of Pope Pius XII
Vi è a Roma (1940)
Address of His Holiness Pope Pius XII to Newlyweds on the Perpetual Teaching of the Living Peter, January 17, 1940
There exists in Rome an ancient and pious practice, which even the most illustrious personages have more than once performed, for newly married couples to make a devout visit to the Patriarchal Basilica of the Vatican, to repeat their Catholic beliefs and to implore perseverance in the faith for their new homes. And you, dear sons and daughters, through a particularly happy coincidence, have come here on the very eve of the day on which the Church celebrates the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter at Rome.
The chair is a seat, somewhat raised and rather solemn, from which a master teaches. Look then upon the chair from which the first Pope spoke to the earliest Christians, just as we speak to you now, admonishing them to be on guard against the devil who goes about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (I Pet. 5, 8), exhorting them to be strong in their faith and not to be led astray by the errors of false prophets (II Pet. 2, 1). This teaching of Peter continues in his successors, and will continue, unchanged, for all time, for this is the mission given by Christ Himself to the head of the Church.
To show the universal and infallible character of this teaching, the seat of the spiritual primacy has been fixed in Rome, after a providential preparation. God Himself, as our great predecessor St. Leo observed, saw to it that people were united in one empire, of which Rome was the head, so that from her the light of truth, revealed for the salvation of all nations, might be more effectively diffused to all its members.
The successors of Peter, mortals like all men, pass on more or less rapidly. But the primacy of Peter will endure forever through the special assistance promised it when Jesus charged him to strengthen his brethren in the faith. Whatever may have been the name, however he may look, whatever may be the human origin of each Pope, it is always Peter who lives in him. It is Peter who directs and governs; it is Peter above all who teaches and spreads across the world the light of emancipating truth. It was this which caused a great sacred orator to say that God established an eternal chair in Rome: “Peter lives in his successors; Peter always speaks from his chair” (Bossuet).
Here, then, is the grave warning — we have already referred to it — which he directed to the Christians of his day: “False prophets were among the people, just as among you there will be lying teachers. Since you know this beforehand, be on your guard, lest carried away by the errors of the foolish, you fall away from your own steadfastness” (II Pet. 3, 17).
At times you may hear those around you slight religion as unessential or even harmful, compared with the preoccupations of material life. Perhaps in your presence there will be extolled religious sentimentality without dogma; errors and opinions will be affirmed contradicting what the catechism has taught you concerning marriage, its unity and its indissolubility. You will hear it said that Christian marriage imposes on husband and wife obligations which are excessive and impossible to fulfill. Impossible, yes, if one relies on human power alone; but for this reason the sacrament has given you divine power, preserving it through the state of grace. God demands nothing that is beyond this supernatural power, present in and cooperating with you: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4, 13), exclaimed the Apostle to the Gentiles. “Yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (I Cor. 15, 10).
Do not be afraid of your duties, then, however burdensome they may appear. Remember that day when Peter, the fisherman of Galilee, without human assistance, after having founded the church of Antioch and traveled through many regions, came to establish his chair and that of his successors in Rome. He was, according to the metaphor of St. Leo the Great, like a man entering a forest of fierce beasts, or sailing upon a sea raging in the crosscurrents of paganism, all of which converged upon the city from every corner of the empire. Yet, notwithstanding this, he walked upon this sea with a greater assurance than he had upon Lake Genesareth, for by this time his faith was divinely strengthened.
Ask St. Peter to give you this strong faith. Then even your obligations as Christian husbands and wives will not seem too arduous. On the contrary, you will perform them joyfully, heeding in the mid-twentieth century the teaching which the first Pope imparted to the married couples of his day: “Let wives be subject to their husbands; so that even if any do not believe the word, they may without word be won through the behavior of their wives, observing reverently your chaste behavior…. Husbands, in like manner, dwell with your wives considerately, paying honor to the woman as to the weaker vessel, as co-heir of the grace of life” (I Pet. 3: 1, 7). Nothing will protect you better from empty desires for change, from fickle inconstancy and from dangerous experiences than the knowledge that you are forever united to each other in a state of life you have chosen freely.
[Original Source (Italian): Discorsi e Radiomessaggi di Sua Santità Pio XII, 1939-1949, vol. 1 (1940): pp. 487-492. Also available at Vatican web site. Translation Source: James F. Murray, Jr., and Bianca M. Murray, eds., Dear Newlyweds: Pope Pius XII Speaks to Young Couples (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1961), pp. 210-212.]
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
License: public domain
