Pope delivers World Day of Peace message
January 02, 2012
As he celebrated Mass in the Vatican basilica on January 1, the feast of Mary, Mother of God, Pope Benedict XVI formally released his message for the 45th World Day of Peace, entitled "Educating Young People in Justice and Peace.”
In his homily the Pontiff said that Jesus comes to bring “the mercy and the peace that the world, of itself, cannot give, and which it needs always, at least as much as bread.” The Church points the world toward Christ as the path to peace, he said.
The Pontiff underlined the importance of providing young people with a proper moral education, helping them to recognize the demands of justice and peace despite “the shadows that obscure the horizon of today’s world.” Although young people quickly recognize the need for tolerance and coexistence in a global society, he said, “the social reality in which they grow up can lead them to think and act in the opposite way, even to be intolerant and violent.” The only appropriate antidote, he said, is proper education and religious formation.
After the morning Mass, at his midday Angelus audience, the Holy Father returned to the same theme, urging all the faithful to “have the patience and constancy to seek out justice and peace.” He asked for prayers that world leaders would “renew their willingness and commitment to accept and support this irrepressible desire of humanity.”
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Further information:
- Importance of Educating Young People in Justice and Peace (VIS)
- Peace--bread for humanity (L'Osservatore Romano)
- Angelus: Praying That the New Year May Be a Time of Peace (VIS)
- Pope calls for moral education of youth in annual message for World Day of Peace (CWN, 12/16)
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