Papal Broadcast

For the third time since the opening of Station HVJ. Vatican City, the U. S. heard last week the gentle, deliberate voice of Pope Pius XI. Occasion was the ceremonial reading of the heroic virtues of Mere Alix LeClerc, founder with St. Pierre Fourier in 1597 of the Congregation of Notre-Dame. Alix LeClerc (1576-1622) saw a vision of the Virgin Mary, bearing a garment like those which the members of the Congregation were later to wear. Alix LeClerc and her co-founders practiced intense asceticism while instructing the young. Certain people voiced disapproval. Even St. Pierre Fourier was worried, but Alix LeClerc had a vision which clinched their determination: The Virgin appeared again, placed the Infant Jesus in her arms, told her to persevere. Alix Le-Clerc was declared Venerable in 1899, is to be beatified and doubtless eventually canonized. Said Pius XI: '. . . On this day our Divine Redeemer and Master, through our humble ministry, deigns to present for the admiration and still more for the emulation and universal imitation, the example of a soul that precisely in its ready, generous, always increasingly generous life, corresponding with Divine grace and persevering always for perfect fidelity, reaches the very summits of heroism. . . . Nothing remains for us to do except rejoice with the fortunate daughters of venerable Alix LeClerc. We do this with all our hearts. . . . We design also to bless, and we do bless, all who in these days of universal anxiety, and of universal suffering with a sincere desire for the common good do labor for the return of mutual confidence among peoples."

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