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Post date: Dec 31, 2013 3:20:45 AM
The message of his holiness Pope Francis for the celebration of the world day of peace this 1 January 2014 is “Fraternity, the foundation and pathway to peace”.“Fraternity is an essential human quality, for we are relational beings. A lively awareness of our relatedness helps us to look upon and to treat each person as a true sister or brother; without fraternity it is impossible to build a just society and a solid and lasting peace. We should remember that fraternity is generally first learned in the family, thanks above all to the responsible and complementary roles of each of its members, particularly the father and the mother. The family is the wellspring of all fraternity, and as such it is the foundation and the first pathway to peace, since, by its vocation, it is meant to spread its love to the world around it.” Pope Francis writes.
The Pope recalled the points made by a number of his predecessors. Quoting Pope Benedict, for example, he repeated: “Globalization makes us neighbours, but does not make us brothers”.
In a wide ranging statement Pope Francis covered all aspects of the human condition and circumstances.
“The succession of economic crises should lead to a timely rethinking of our models of economic development and to a change in lifestyles. Today’s crisis, even with its serious implications for people’s lives, can also provide us with a fruitful opportunity to rediscover the virtues of prudence, temperance, justice and strength. These virtues can help us to overcome difficult moments and to recover the fraternal bonds which join us one to another, with deep confidence that human beings need and are capable of something greater than maximizing their individual interest. Above all, these virtues are necessary for building and preserving a society in accord with human dignity.”
“Fraternity needs to be discovered, loved, experienced, proclaimed and witnessed to. But only love, bestowed as a gift from God, enables us to accept and fully experience fraternity.”
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