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| CURRENT ISSUE: January
7, 2008 VOL. 46, NO. 1 • Oakland, CA |
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| Threats to traditional
family threaten peace, pope says in message |
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Anything that threatens the
traditional family threatens peace, because the family “is the first
and indispensable teacher of peace,” Pope Benedict XVI said in his
annual message for the Jan. 1 celebration of the World Day of Peace.
The pope also said the responsibilities learned and the joys and struggles
shared within individual families must be mirrored on a global level because
everyone is part of one human family.
The pope chose “The Human Family, A Community of Peace” as
the theme for 2008, the 40th anniversary of the Catholic Church’s
celebration of World Peace Day.
“The first form of communion between persons is that born of the
love of a man and a woman who decide to enter a stable union in order
to build together a new family,” the pope wrote.
“But the peoples of the earth, too, are called to build relationships
of solidarity and cooperation among themselves, as befits members of the
one human family,” he said.
War and violence, exploitation of the weak, rampant poverty and underdevelopment,
destruction of the environment and the arms race are all threatening signs
that individuals and nations have not learned to live together in harmony
and mutual responsibility, the pope said.
“Humanity today is unfortunately experiencing great division and
sharp conflicts which cast dark shadows on its future,” he said.
Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice
and Peace, said Pope Benedict’s concerns about the arms race, both
nuclear and conventional, reflect the fact that global military spending
reached an all-time high in 2006 and that, in many cases, countries have
tried to justify their increased military spending by claiming it was
necessary in order to combat terrorism.
“After the terrorist attacks against the United States of Sept.
11, 2001, the international community adopted severe measures against
the risk of terrorism,” Cardinal Martino said. “At the same
time, nations — especially the nuclear powers — began a renewal
of their military apparatus and their weapons.”
“On this basis,” he said, “it seems correct to affirm
that the current policy of state security threatens the very peace and
security of the people it intends to defend.”
In his message, Pope Benedict wrote, “In difficult times such as
these, it is necessary for all persons of good will to come together to
reach concrete agreements aimed at an effective demilitarization, especially
in the area of nuclear arms.”
In explaining the theme he chose for the message, the pope said the fact
that a strong, healthy family is the basis of a healthy society is not
simply a slogan.
“In a healthy family life we experience some of the fundamental
elements of peace: justice and love between brothers and sisters; the
role of authority expressed by parents; loving concern for the members
who are weaker because of youth, sickness or old age; mutual help in the
necessities of life; readiness to accept others and, if necessary, to
forgive them,” Pope Benedict said.
The pope said that anyone who weakens the institution of the family weakens
“what is in effect the primary agency of peace” in society.
