Pope Francis has sent a Message to the participants in a conference sponsored by Pax Christi International, the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, and the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, exploring the theme: Nonviolence and Just Peace: Contributing to the Catholic Understanding of and Commitment to Nonviolence.
In his message to the Nonviolence and Just Peace conference, Pope Francis said, iter alia,
As Christians, we also know that it is only by considering our peers as brothers and sisters that we will overcome wars and conflicts. The Church tirelessly repeats that this is true not merely at an individual level but also at the level of peoples and nations, for it truly regards the International Community as the “Family of Nations”. That is why, in this year’s Message for the World Day of Peace, I made an appeal to States’ leaders to renew “their relations with other peoples and to enable their real participation and inclusion in the life of the international community, in order to ensure fraternity within the family of nations as well.”
Furthermore, we know as Christians that, in order to make this happen, the greatest obstacle to be removed is the wall of indifference. Recent history justifies using the word ‘wall’ not in a figurative sense alone, for unhappily it is an all too tangible reality. This phenomenon of indifference touches not only our fellow human beings but also the natural environment, with often disastrous consequences in terms of security and social peace.
It is understood that this conference by Pax Christi may well presage a full review of the Just War teaching in the Catholic Church’s moral theology. You can read the full text of Pope Francis’s Message here: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-message-to-peacebuilding-conference/
