Friday, July 30, 2010 July 30, 1946 COD LIVER OIL FROM NEWFOUNDLAND FOR WAR VICTIMS IN EUROPE Archbishop Antoniutti, Apostolic Delegate to Canada and Newfoundland wrote to Archbishop Edward Patrick Roche of St. John’s on this date (30 July 1946), expressing to the bishops Newfoundland Pope Pius XII’s gratitude at their generous response to his appeal on behalf of war victims. Pope XII had issued an Encyclical Letter on January 6, 1946 called “QUEMADMODUM” Pleading For the Care of the World's Destitute Children. He wrote to the bishops that as a result of WWII the situation of children in Europe was desperate. He wrote: “Without home, without clothing, they shiver in the winter cold and die. And there are no fathers or mothers to warm and clothe them. Ailing, or even in the last stages of consumption, they are without the necessary medicines and medical care. We see them, too, passing before Our sorrowful gaze, wandering through the noisy city street, reduced to unemployment and moral corruption, or drifting as vagrants uncertainly about the cities, the towns, the countryside, while no one -- alas-provides safe refuge for them against want, vice and crime.” There was a generous financial response from the faithful of Canada and Newfoundland approximately $150,000 in relief supplies. COD LIVER OIL FROM NEWFOUNDLAND In addition to financial support from Newfoundland - the Pope’s delegate also thanked the people of Newfoundland for the six tons of cod liver oil that “they have been able to ship abroad this year, for the children of Europe.” Cod Liver Oil is pressed from the fresh liver of the cod and purified. It is one of the best-known natural sources of vitamin D, and a rich source of vitamin A. Because cod liver oil is more easily absorbed than other oils, it was formerly widely used as a nutrient and tonic. Even before the end of WWII the Vatican realized that something would have to be done for the health of the children in war torn Europe. The Pope’s Representative to Canada and Newfoundland began to secure a considerable quantity of cod-liver oil to be kept at its disposal so it could be distributed at the end of the war in those regions where the health conditions of poor children demanded it. In Newfoundland, local businessman P.J. Lewis was charged by Archbishop Roche of St. John’s with finding the cod liver oil and looking at how it could be transported to the children in Europe. For more information on this and other related subjects contact the Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese. Other “Archival Moments” will be posted at this site on a regular weekly basis. If you have friends or colleagues who would like to receive these "archival moments" please send us their e mail address or forward this moment to them from your desk!! Larry Dohey Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s P.O. Box 1363 St. John’s, NL A1C 5M3 709-726-3660 E-mail: archives@nf.aibn.com We hope that you have enjoyed this archival moment.