The
Face of
Mercy / Daniel Conway
Pope outlines paths for building a lasting peace
(En Espanol)
“All can work together to build a more peaceful world, starting from the hearts of individuals and relationships in the family, then within society and with the environment, and all the way up to relationships between peoples and nations.” (Pope Francis, 2022 World Day of Peace message)
In his 2022 World Day of Peace message, Pope Francis outlines “three paths for building a lasting peace.” These three include dialogue, education and labor. All presuppose a shared desire for peace among individuals, families and societies large and small. All require a change of mind, heart and actions so that “all can work together to build a more peaceful world.”
“Dialogue entails listening to one another, sharing different views, coming to agreement and walking together,” the Holy Father says. Dialogue is important for all segments of human society, but the pope’s message draws special attention to what he calls “dialogue among generations.”
The natural barriers that exist between older and younger people need to be removed, Pope Francis says. “Promoting such dialogue between generations involves breaking up the hard and barren soil of conflict and indifference in order to sow the seeds of a lasting and shared peace.” Dialogue between generations, which every parent knows is easier said than done, should be acknowledged “as the basis for the realization of shared projects,” the pope believes.
“Great social challenges and peace processes necessarily call for dialogue between the keepers of memory—the elderly—and those who move history forward—the young,” the Holy Father teaches. “Each must be willing to make room for others and not to insist on monopolizing the entire scene by pursuing their own immediate interests, as if there were no past and future.”
The second pathway to peace proposed by Pope Francis is “education as a factor of freedom, responsibility and development.” The pope contrasts the amount of money spent on education with the funds dedicated to the development of weapons. “It is high time, then, that governments develop economic policies aimed at inverting the proportion of public funds spent on education and on weaponry,” he says. “The pursuit of a genuine process of international disarmament can only prove beneficial for the development of peoples and nations, freeing up financial resources better used for health care, schools, infrastructure, care of the land and so forth.”
Pope Francis hopes that our society’s investment in education will be accompanied by “greater efforts to promote the culture of care, which, in the face of social divisions and unresponsive institutions, could become a common language working to break down barriers and build bridges.” He, therefore, proposes a “compact that can promote education in integral ecology, according to a cultural model of peace, development and sustainability centered on fraternity and the covenant between human beings and the environment.” Building bridges, not walls, has been a consistent theme of this pope. He believes that education, not ignorance, is essential to building a peaceful society.
Finally, the pope sees “labor” (human work) as a necessary component in building a pathway to lasting peace. Since Pope Leo XIII first published “Rerum Novarum” (“Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor”) on May 15, 1891, all popes have emphasized the importance of work in the development of individuals and society as a whole. Pope St. John Paul II famously said, “Work is for man; man is not for work.” To this fundamental social and economic principle, Pope Francis adds: “Labor, in fact, is the foundation on which to build justice and solidarity in every community.
“It is more urgent than ever to promote, throughout our world, decent and dignified working conditions, oriented to the common good and to the safeguarding of creation,” the Holy Father says. “The freedom of entrepreneurial initiatives needs to be ensured and supported; at the same time, efforts must be made to encourage a renewed sense of social responsibility, so that profit will not be the sole guiding criterion.”
As we begin a new year, still conscious of the uncertainty and hostility of recent years, let’s join with Pope Francis in working for a peace that can last.
As missionary disciples of Jesus Christ, our task is to bring his peace to our weary, war-torn world. Dialogue, education and labor are essential components in building the peace of Christ.
(Daniel Conway is a member of The Criterion’s editorial committee.) †