More quotes from the pope’s message for the 58th World Day of Peace on January 1, 2025, on the theme “Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace”:
Importance of gratitude
“The goods of the earth are meant not for a privileged few, but for everyone. We do well to recall the words of St Basil of Caesarea:
‘Tell me, what things belong to you? Where did you find them to make them part of your life? … Did you not come forth naked from the womb of your mother? Will you not return naked to the ground? Where did your property come from? If you say that it comes to you naturally by luck, you would deny God by not recognising the creator and being grateful to the giver’.
“Without gratitude, we are unable to recognise God’s gifts. Like the elites at the time of Jesus, who profited from the suffering of the poor, so today, in our interconnected global village, the international system, unless it is inspired by a spirit of solidarity and interdependence, gives rise to injustices, aggravated by corruption, which leave the poorer countries trapped.”
Respect life
“I also ask for a firm commitment to respect the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person can cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to a future of prosperity and happiness for themselves and for their children. Without hope for the future, it becomes hard for the young to look forward to bringing new lives into the world.
“Here I would like once more to propose a concrete gesture that can help foster the culture of life, namely the elimination of the death penalty in all nations.
“This penalty not only compromises the inviolability of life but eliminates every human hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation.”
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)
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Żepp – December 29, 2024
Strengthening equality and inclusivity
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