https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/messages/peace/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_20011211_xxxv-world-day-for-peace.html
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MESSAGE
OF HIS HOLINESS
POPE JOHN PAUL II
FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE
WORLD DAY OF PEACE
1 JANUARY 2002
NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE
NO JUSTICE WITHOUT FORGIVENESS
Preamble
1. The World
Day of Peace this year is being celebrated in the shadow
of the dramatic events of 11 September last. On that day, a terrible
crime was committed: in a few brief hours thousands of innocent people
of many ethnic backgrounds were slaughtered. Since then, people
throughout the world have felt a profound personal vulnerability and a
new fear for the future. Addressing this state of mind, the Church
testifies to her hope, based on the conviction that evil, the mysterium iniquitatis, does not
have the final word in human affairs. The history of salvation,
narrated in Sacred Scripture, sheds clear light on the entire history
of the world and shows us that human events are always accompanied by
the merciful Providence of God, who knows how to touch even the most
hardened of hearts and bring good fruits even from what seems utterly
barren soil.
This is the hope which sustains the Church at the beginning of 2002:
that, by the grace of God, a world in which the power of evil seems
once again to have taken the upper hand will in fact be transformed
into a world in which the noblest aspirations of the human heart will
triumph, a world in which true peace will prevail.
Peace: the work
of justice and love
2. Recent
events, including the terrible killings just mentioned, move
me to return to a theme which often stirs in the depths of my heart
when I remember the events of history which have marked my life,
especially my youth.
The enormous suffering of peoples and individuals, even among my own
friends and acquaintances, caused by Nazi and Communist
totalitarianism, has never been far from my thoughts and prayers. I
have often paused to reflect on the persistent question: how do we restore the
moral and social order subjected to such horrific violence? My
reasoned conviction, confirmed in turn by biblical revelation, is that
the shattered order cannot be fully restored except by a response that
combines justice with forgiveness. The pillars of true
peace are justice and that form of love which is forgiveness.
3. But in the
present circumstances, how can we speak of justice and
forgiveness as the source and condition of peace? We can and we must,
no matter how difficult this may be; a difficulty which often comes
from thinking that justice and forgiveness are irreconcilable. But
forgiveness is the opposite of resentment and revenge, not of justice.
In fact, true peace is “the work of justice” (Is 32:17). As the Second
Vatican Council put it, peace is “the fruit of that right ordering of
things with which the divine founder has invested human society and
which must be actualized by man thirsting for an ever more perfect
reign of justice” (Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 78) (2). For more than fifteen
hundred years, the Catholic Church has repeated the teaching of Saint
Augustine of Hippo on this point. He reminds us that the peace which
can and must be built in this world is the peace of right order—tranquillitas ordinis,
the tranquillity of order (cf. De Civitate Dei, 19,13).
True peace therefore is the fruit of justice, that moral virtue and
legal guarantee which ensures full respect for rights and
responsibilities, and the just distribution of benefits and burdens.
But because human justice is always fragile and imperfect, subject as
it is to the limitations and egoism of individuals and groups, it must
include and, as it were, be completed by the forgiveness which heals
and rebuilds troubled human relations from their foundations.
This is true in circumstances great and small, at the personal level or
on a wider, even international scale. Forgiveness is in no way opposed
to justice, as if to forgive meant to overlook the need to right the
wrong done. It is rather the fullness of justice, leading to that
tranquillity of order which is much more than a fragile and temporary
cessation of hostilities, involving as it does the deepest healing of
the wounds which fester in human hearts. Justice and forgiveness are
both essential to such healing.
It is these two dimensions of peace that I wish to explore in this
message. The World Day of Peace this year offers all humanity, and
particularly the leaders of nations, the opportunity to reflect upon
the demands of justice and the call to forgiveness in the face of the
grave problems which continue to afflict the world, not the least of
which is the new
level of violence introduced by organized terrorism.
The reality of
terrorism
4. It is
precisely peace born of justice and forgiveness that is under
assault today by international terrorism. In recent years, especially
since the end of the Cold War, terrorism has developed into a
sophisticated network of political, economic and technical collusion
which goes beyond national borders to embrace the whole world.
Well-organized terrorist groups can count on huge financial resources
and develop wide-ranging strategies, striking innocent people who have
nothing to do with the aims pursued by the terrorists.
When terrorist organizations use their own followers as weapons to be
launched against defenceless and unsuspecting people they show clearly
the death-wish that feeds them. Terrorism springs from hatred, and it
generates isolation, mistrust and closure. Violence is added to
violence in a tragic sequence that exasperates successive generations,
each one inheriting the hatred which divided those that went before. Terrorism is built on
contempt for human life. For this reason, not only does it
commit intolerable crimes, but because it resorts to terror as a
political and military means it is itself a true crime against
humanity.
5. There exists
therefore a right to defend oneself against terrorism, a right
which, as always, must be exercised with respect for moral and legal
limits in the choice of ends and means. The guilty must be correctly
identified, since criminal culpability is always personal and cannot be
extended to the nation, ethnic group or religion to which the
terrorists may belong. International cooperation in the fight against
terrorist activities must also include a courageous and resolute
political, diplomatic and economic commitment to relieving situations
of oppression and marginalization which facilitate the designs of
terrorists. The recruitment of terrorists in fact is easier in
situations where rights are trampled upon and injustices tolerated over
a long period of time.
Still, it must be firmly stated that the injustices existing in the
world can never be used to excuse acts of terrorism, and it should be
noted that the victims of the radical breakdown of order which
terrorism seeks to achieve include above all the countless millions of
men and women who are least well-positioned to withstand a collapse of
international solidarity—namely, the people of the developing world,
who already live on a thin margin of survival and who would be most
grievously affected by global economic and political chaos. The
terrorist claim to be acting on behalf of the poor is a patent
falsehood.
You shall not
kill in God's name!
6. Those who
kill by acts of terrorism actually despair of humanity, of
life, of the future. In their view, everything is to be hated and
destroyed. Terrorists hold that the truth in which they believe or the
suffering that they have undergone are so absolute that their reaction
in destroying even innocent lives is justified. Terrorism is often the
outcome of that fanatic fundamentalism
which springs from the conviction that one's own vision of the truth
must be forced upon everyone else. Instead, even when the truth has
been reached—and this can happen only in a limited and imperfect way—it
can never be imposed. Respect for a person's conscience, where the
image of God himself is reflected (cf. Gen 1:26-27), means that we can
only propose the truth to others, who are then responsible for
accepting it. To try to impose on others by violent means what we
consider to be the truth is an offence against human dignity, and
ultimately an offence against God whose image that person bears. For
this reason, what is usually referred to as fundamentalism is an
attitude radically opposed to belief in God. Terrorism exploits not
just people, it exploits God: it ends by making him an idol to
be used for one's own purposes.
7. Consequently,
no religious leader can condone terrorism, and much less preach it.
It is a profanation of religion to declare oneself a terrorist in the
name of God, to do violence to others in his name. Terrorist violence
is a contradiction of faith in God, the Creator of man, who cares for
man and loves him. It is altogether contrary to faith in Christ the
Lord, who taught his disciples to pray: “Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Mt 6:12).
Following the teaching and example of Jesus, Christians hold that to
show mercy is to live out the truth of our lives: we can and must be
merciful because mercy has been shown us by a God who is Love (cf. 1 Jn
4:7-12). The God who enters into history to redeem us, and through the
dramatic events of Good Friday prepares the victory of Easter Sunday,
is a God of mercy and forgiveness (cf. Ps 103:3-4, 10-13). Thus Jesus
told those who challenged his dining with sinners: “Go and learn what
this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice'. For I came not to call
the righteous, but sinners” (Mt 9:13). The
followers of Christ,
baptized into his redeeming Death and Resurrection, must always be men
and women of mercy and forgiveness.
The need for
forgiveness
8. But what does
forgiveness actually mean? And why should we forgive? A
reflection on forgiveness cannot avoid these questions. Returning to
what I wrote in my Message for the 1997 World Day of Peace (“Offer
Forgiveness and Receive Peace”), I would reaffirm that forgiveness
inhabits people's hearts before it becomes a social reality. Only to
the degree that an ethics and a culture of forgiveness prevail can we
hope for a “politics” of forgiveness, expressed in society's attitudes
and laws, so that through them justice takes on a more human character.
Forgiveness is above all a personal choice, a decision of the heart to
go against the natural instinct to pay back evil with evil. The measure
of such a decision is the love of God who draws us to himself in spite
of our sin. It has its perfect exemplar in the forgiveness of Christ,
who on the Cross prayed: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what
they do” (Lk 23:34).
Forgiveness therefore has a divine source and criterion. This does not
mean that its significance cannot also be grasped in the light of human
reasoning; and this, in the first place, on the basis of what people
experience when they do wrong. They experience their human weakness,
and they want others to deal leniently with them. Why not therefore do
towards others what we want them to do towards us? All human beings
cherish the hope of being able to start all over again, and not remain
for ever shut up in their own mistakes and guilt. They all want to
raise their eyes to the future and to discover new possibilities of
trust and commitment.
9. Forgiveness
therefore, as a fully human act, is above all a personal
initiative. But individuals are essentially social beings, situated
within a pattern of relationships through which they express themselves
in ways both good and bad. Consequently, society too is
absolutely in need of forgiveness. Families, groups, societies,
States and the international community itself need forgiveness in order
to renew ties that have been sundered, go beyond sterile situations of
mutual condemnation and overcome the temptation to discriminate against
others without appeal. The ability to forgive
lies at the very basis of the idea of a future society marked by
justice and solidarity.
By contrast, the failure to forgive, especially when it serves to
prolong conflict, is extremely costly in terms of human development.
Resources are used for weapons rather than for development, peace and
justice. What sufferings are inflicted on humanity because of the
failure to reconcile! What delays in progress because of the failure to
forgive! Peace is
essential for development, but true peace is made possible only through
forgiveness.
Forgiveness, the
high road
10.
Forgiveness is not a proposal that can be immediately understood or
easily accepted; in many ways it is a paradoxical message. Forgiveness
in fact always involves an apparent
short-term loss for a real long-term gain. Violence is the exact
opposite; opting as it does for an apparent short‑term gain, it
involves a real and permanent loss. Forgiveness may seem like weakness,
but it demands great spiritual strength and moral courage, both in
granting it and in accepting it. It may seem in some way to diminish
us, but in fact it leads us to a fuller and richer humanity, more
radiant with the splendour of the Creator.
My ministry at the service of the Gospel obliges me, and at the same
time gives me the strength, to insist upon the necessity of
forgiveness. I do so again today in the hope of stirring serious and
mature thinking on this theme, with a view to a far-reaching
resurgence of the human spirit in individual hearts and in relations
between the peoples of the world.
11. Reflecting
on forgiveness, our minds turn naturally to certain
situations of conflict which endlessly feed deep and divisive hatreds
and a seemingly unstoppable sequence of personal and collective
tragedies. I refer especially to what is happening in the Holy Land,
that blessed place of God's encounter with man, where Jesus, the Prince
of Peace, lived, died and rose from the dead.
The present troubled international situation prompts a more intense
call to resolve the ArabIsraeli conflict, which has now been going on
for more than fifty years, with alternate phases of greater or lesser
tension. The continuous recourse to acts of terror and war, which
aggravate the situation and diminish hope on all sides, must finally
give way to a negotiated solution. The rights and demands of each party
can be taken into proper account and balanced in an equitable way, if
and when there is a will to let justice and reconciliation prevail.
Once more I urge the beloved peoples of the Holy Land to work for a new
era of mutual respect and constructive accord.
Interreligious
understanding and
cooperation
12. In this
whole effort, religious leaders have a weighty
responsibility. The various Christian confessions, as well as the
world's great religions, need to work together to eliminate the social
and cultural causes of terrorism. They can do this by teaching the
greatness and dignity of the human person, and by spreading a clearer sense of the
oneness of the human family. This is a specific area of
ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and cooperation, a pressing
service which religion can offer to world peace.
In particular, I am convinced that Jewish, Christian and Islamic
religious leaders must now take the lead in publicly condemning
terrorism and in denying terrorists any form of religious or moral
legitimacy.
13. In bearing
common witness to the truth that the deliberate murder
of the innocent is a grave evil always, everywhere, and without
exception, the world's religious leaders will help to form the morally
sound public opinion that is essential for building an international
civil society capable of pursuing the tranquillity of order in justice
and freedom.
In undertaking such a commitment, the various religions cannot but
pursue the path
of forgiveness, which opens the way to mutual understanding,
respect and trust. The help that religions can give to peace and
against terrorism consists precisely in their teaching forgiveness,
for those who forgive and seek forgiveness know that there is a higher
Truth, and that by accepting that Truth they can transcend themselves.
Prayer for peace
14. Precisely
for this reason, prayer for peace is not an afterthought
to the work of peace. It is of the very essence of building the peace
of order, justice, and freedom. To pray for peace is to open the human
heart to the inroads of God's power to renew all things. With the
life-giving force of his grace, God can create openings for peace where
only obstacles and closures are apparent; he can strengthen and enlarge
the solidarity of the human family in spite of our endless history of
division and conflict. To pray for peace is to pray for justice, for a
right-ordering of relations within and among nations and peoples. It is
to pray for freedom, especially for the religious freedom that is a
basic human and civil right of every individual. To pray for peace is
to seek God's forgiveness, and to implore the courage to forgive those
who have trespassed against us.
For all these reasons I have invited representatives of the world's
religions to come to Assisi, the town of Saint Francis, on 24 January
2002, to pray for peace. In doing so we will show that genuine
religious belief is an inexhaustible wellspring of mutual respect and
harmony among peoples; indeed it is the chief antidote to violence and
conflict. At this time of great distress, the human family needs to be
reminded of our unfailing reasons for hope. It is precisely this hope
that we intend to proclaim in Assisi, asking Almighty God—in
the beautiful phrase attributed to Saint Francis himself—to make each of us a
channel of his peace.
15. No peace
without justice, no justice without forgiveness: this is what in
this Message I wish to say to believers and non-believers alike, to all
men and women of good will who are concerned for the good of the human
family and for its future.
No peace without
justice, no justice without forgiveness: this is what I wish to
say to those responsible for the future of the human community,
entreating them to be guided in their weighty and difficult decisions
by the light of man's true good, always with a view to the common good.
No peace without
justice, no justice without forgiveness: I shall not tire of
repeating this warning to those who, for one reason or another, nourish
feelings of hatred, a desire for revenge or the will to destroy.
On this World Day of Peace, may a more intense prayer rise from the
hearts of all believers for the victims of terrorism, for their
families so tragically stricken, for all the peoples who continue to be
hurt and convulsed by terrorism and war. May the light of our prayer
extend even to those who gravely offend God and man by these pitiless
acts, that they may look into their hearts, see the evil of what they
do, abandon all violent intentions, and seek forgiveness. In these
troubled times, may the whole human family find true and lasting peace,
born of the marriage of justice and mercy!
From the Vatican,
8 December 2001
JOHN PAUL II
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Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
NOTES
(1) Italics in the text
are
from the original. Highlighting in bold
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