nt of the Prince of Peace
the dawn of better days. Here is the text of this valued message:

_To Our Dear Son, Desire Mercier, Cardinal Priest of the Holy
Roman Church, of the Title of St. Peter in Chains, Archbishop
of Malines, at Malines:_

Our Dear Son: Health and apostolic benediction. The fatherly
solicitude which we feel for all the faithful whom Divine
Providence has intrusted to our care causes us to share their
griefs even more fully than their joys.

Could we, then, fail to be moved by keenest sorrow at the
sight of the Belgian Nation, which we so dearly love, reduced
by a most cruel and most disastrous war to this lamentable
state?

We behold the King and his august family, the members of the
Government, the chief persons of the country, Bishops,
priests, and a whole people enduring woes which must fill with
pity all gentle hearts, and which our own soul, in the fervor
of paternal love, must be the first to compassionate. Thus,
under the burden of this distress and this mourning, we call
in our prayers for an end to such misfortunes. May the God of
mercy hasten the day.

Meanwhile we strive to mitigate, as far as in us lies, this
excessive suffering. Therefore the step taken by our dear son,
Cardinal Hartmann, Archbishop of Cologne, at whose request it
was arranged that French or Belgian priests detained in
Germany should have the treatment of officers, gave us great
satisfaction, and we have expressed our thanks to him for his
action.

As regards Belgium, we have been informed that the faithful of
that nation, so sorely tried, did not neglect, in their piety,
to turn toward us their thoughts, and that even under the blow
of so many calamities they proposed to gather this year, as in
all preceding years, the offerings to St. Peter, which supply
the necessities of the Apostolic See.

This truly incomparable proof of piety and of attachment
filled us with admiration; we accept it with all the affection
that is due from a grateful heart; but having regard to the
painful position in which our dear children are placed, we
cannot bring ourselves to favor the fulfillment of that
project, noble though it is. If any alms are to be gathered,
our wish is that the money should be entirely devoted to the
benefit of