On the Right

New York, May 5—It is harder, in the sweetness of one’s own liberty and security, to urge nobility of action in others than to keep silent on the matter; but it must be said, the more urgently because the Pope, addressing himself repeatedly to the fate of Aldo Moro, has thus far failed to say it. Failed to say that Aldo Moro must prepare himself to die like a Christian, even as he sought to live as a Christian.

Mr. Moro has been permitted by his bloody kidnappers to write regularly to officials of the Italian government. Over and over again, Moro reassures the addressee that he writes what is on his own mind, free of duress, or drugs, or coercion of any kind. “I am saying these things in full lucidity and without coercion on my person,” were the exact words used to Benigno Zaccagnini, secretary general of the Christian Democratic Party. What Moro is urging on the government of Italy is that it understand the situation as it would understand a situation at time of war. He asks for “the exchange of some prisoners of war . . . as is being practiced in highly civilized countries . . . where exchanges are carried out not only for objective humanitarian reasons, but for saving innocent human life. Why another standard in Italy?”

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

New York, May 5—It is harder, in the sweetness of one’s own liberty and security, to urge nobility of action in others than to keep silent on the matter; but it must be said, the more urgently because the Pope, addressing himself repeatedly to the fate of Aldo Moro, has thus far failed to say it. Failed to say that Aldo Moro must prepare himself to die like a Christian, even as he sought to live as a Christian.

Mr. Moro has been permitted by his bloody kidnappers to write regularly to officials of the Italian government. Over and over again, Moro reassures the addressee that he writes what is on his own mind, free of duress, or drugs, or coercion of any kind. “I am saying these things in full lucidity and without coercion on my person,” were the exact words used to Benigno Zaccagnini, secretary general of the Christian Democratic Party. What Moro is urging on the government of Italy is that it understand the situation as it would understand a situation at time of war. He asks for “the exchange of some prisoners of war . . . as is being practiced in highly civilized countries . . . where exchanges are carried out not only for objective humanitarian reasons, but for saving innocent human life. Why another standard in Italy?”