Vatican City: The Catholic Church marks the World Day of Peace each January 1st. In his 2013 message for the day, entitled “Blessed are the Peacemakers,” Pope Benedict XVI says peace is possible in today’s world but everyone must work together as a family to achieve it.
The papal message was presented to journalists at a December press conference in the Vatican by the president, secretary and under-secretary of the Pontifical Justice and Peace Council. As Philippa Hitchen reports, the message looks at both the theological and practical foundations for promoting justice and peace in today’s world:
From defence of human life to food insecurity, from religious freedom to economic development. This message for World Peace Day on January 1st 2013 is a far reaching reflection on the need to establish right relationships between people and recognise that, in God, we are one human family’
Peace, Pope Benedict insists, is not a naïve, utopian dream, but rather it reflects the deepest longing of the human heart. While we must work hard to build a new world order based on truth, freedom, love and justice, as Pope John XXIII wrote in 'Pacem in Terris' half a century ago, we must also recognise that true peace is also a gift from God. Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Justice and Peace Council:
"There are so many efforts, so many initiatives, to bring peace in the world, but establishing divine coordinates for peace invites us to consider that it's not just what we, with our human energies, can do.....
The message does spell out many practical concerns including a looming food crisis, the need for new models of development and financial practise based on people, not just profits, and the right to work as a fundamental good for individuals, families and societies.
There’s also a strong focus on defending the right to life, upholding traditional family values and the need for religious freedom - including conscientious objection to laws or practices which undermine the Church’s teaching and beliefs. Cardinal Turkson again:
"So I would encourage people to more away from the tendency to divide social doctrine or social engagement from faith, as if the two don't belong together - but what is faith if it is not the transformation of the here and now......
Pope Benedict concludes his message with a call for 'a pedagogy of peace' based on pardon and reconciliation. Quoting the prayer, often attributed to St Francis of Assisi, the Pope asks God to make us instrument of His peace, bringing love, mercy and peace wherever there is hatred, hurt or doubt.
source: vatican radio