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Catholic women and girls, formerly you would have thought only of worthily playing your sacred and fruitful role in the management of a wholesome,strong, and radiant home; or you would have consecrated your life to the service of God in the composure of the cloister or in apostolic and charitable works. Beautiful ideals, where woman, in her proper place, and from her proper place, exercises quietly a powerful influence. But now you appear abroad, you enter the arena to take part in the battle: you have not sought to do so, but courageously you accept your new duties; not as resigned victims nor merely in a defensive spirit; you are determined to pass to the counter-attack and conquer...

Never, We believe, never in the course of the history of humanity, have events required on the part of woman so much initiative and daring, so much sense of responsibility, so much fidelity, moral strength, spirit of sacrifice and endurance of all kinds of sufferings -- in a word, so much heroism. The relations, the letters in which women reveal to Us what has been and still is, in these cruel times, their own fate and the fate of their family, are so impressing that one questions whether this be a nightmare, and asks oneself how such things can have happened in our time and in the world in which we live.

In the course of these awful years, women, old and young, have been forced to practice more than manly virtues, and to practice them to a degree required of men only in extraordinary circumstances.

Now, who will pretend that all that is humanly possible has been done to enable woman to draw from the Christian faith, from Christian education,the energy, the patience, the perseverance, the supernatural help needed to keep without faltering under continual trials, conjugal fidelity, and a maternal solicitude?

It is a sorrow and a shame to have to mention and confess that even among Catholics, false doctrines on the dignity of woman, on marriage and the family, on conjugal fidelity and divorce, even on life and death, have stealthily infiltrated souls, and like gnawing worms have attacked the roots of the Christian family and of the Christian ideals of womanhood...

You have wished to receive from Us some directions for the practical and efficacious carrying out of your resolutions. We shall express them and group them as follows:

1. A Lively and Supernatural Faith

First of all, a faith proud, alert, fearless, firm and alive to truth,to the triumph of Catholic doctrine... Surely the battle will be hard,especially the battle for the rights of the family, the dignity of woman,the child, and the school. But you have nature on your side, and consequently those of right mind and good sense, who are after all the majority -- you have, above all, God. Bear witness then to the thought of St. Paul: Your faith has made of you heroes in the fight (Hebr. 11:33 ff).

But take care: the great secret of winning others is, above all, to give them evidence that for a Catholic, her faith is a solid and living reality.

... the first condition is to oppose them [enemies] by carrying out in your life the law of God spontaneously, joyously, and fully accepted.To take this law lightly, would be a confession of a deplorable frivolity and a fatal instability... You know the world of today well enough, dear daughters, to realize that you yourselves who live in it, need strength and courage at each step, to triumph over the temptations and seductions of your own tendencies by an energetic "No!" But how can you say this "no"and repeat it tirelessly, unless you understand and humbly recognize, in the presence of God, that as human creatures you are powerless and need the grace of God. Now you cannot expect to obtain this grace without prayer and sacrifice...

As has been well said: to live today in our great cities without loss of faith and purity requires no less heroism than was needed in the days of bloody persecution...

Many times recently We have emphasized this recommendation because,even among Catholics, there have been tendencies to identify the doctrine of the Church with theories irreconcilable with Christian thought...

The Church always has in mind the good of all the people, the genuine common good. When questions of just social demands arise, she is always in the vanguard of their promotion. This is especially true for those which you, dear daughters, set forth expressly in your program:

a more equitable distribution of wealth has always been and will always remain a chief objective of Catholic social doctrine.

We can say as much for "equality of salary, for men and women, provided there be equal work and output." The Church has long made that demand her own...

We give to you all, and to all who are united with you, to your works and institutions, as well as to your families, and to all who are dear to you, Our Apostolic Blessing.