We have learnt to expect Christmas words that echo the song of the angels of Bethlehem from the peaceful Pope, Pacelli. This year Pius XII may feel that his words have had some effect at least in the cessation of hostilities in Korea, but he will still be faced with deep-seated and incessant conflicts the world over; of there remains as urgently as ever the need for the Vicar of Christ to preach Christ's gospel of peace. We shall still look to him for leadership in this work, begun at the birth of our Lord, to knock down the walls of partition and to effect the killing of enmities in the flesh of Christ. ‘And coming he preached peace to you that were afar off, and peace to them that were nigh’ (cf. Ephesians 2).