From the allocution of Benedict XV to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility on January 5, 1917:
Before God there is no preference of persons. Yet there is no doubt, writes Saint Bernard, that the virtue of nobles is more pleasing to Him, because it is more resplendent.
Jesus Christ Himself was noble, as were Mary and Joseph, being descendants of royal lineage, even though their virtue eclipsed their splendor in His humble birth, which the Church has commemorated in the days just past. Therefore, may Christ, Who chose to have such an illustrious relation to the earthly aristocracy, receive in the all-powerful humility of His cradle the ardent wish We express on your behalf today—that, just as in the manger the highest nobility was united with the most glorious virtue, the same may be true for Our own beloved children, the patricians and nobles of Rome. And may their virtue bring about the Christian regeneration of society and, with it, the graces that are inseparable therefrom: the well-being of all families and the longed-for peace of the world.
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L’Osservatore Romano, January 6, 1917 in Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), Documents IV, p. 470.
