Pope Benedict had already been impressed by Miss Jebb’s lobbying to end the British economic blockade of Europe after the Armistice. In December 1920, he took the unprecedented step of issuing an encyclical, Annus Iam Plenus (On Children of Central Europe), in which he asked Catholic churches around the world to collect for Save the Children on Holy Innocents Day, 28 December. It was the first time that the Roman Catholic Church had supported a non-denominational cause.
