RENEW YOUR COMMITMENT

I implore all men and women of good will to renew their commitment to building a world where all are free to profess their religion or faith, and to express their love of God with all their heart, with all their soul and with all their mind (cf. Mt 22:37).

"BROTHERS AND SISTERS"

If religious freedom is the path to peace, religious education is the highway which leads new generations to see others as their brothers and sisters, with whom they are called to journey and work together so that all will feel that they are living members of the one human family, from which no one is to be excluded.

THE FAMILY AND PEACE

The family ... remains the primary training ground for harmonious relations at every level of coexistence, human, national and international.

HUMAN DIGNITY

Whenever religious freedom is denied, and attempts are made to hinder people from professing their religion or faith and living accordingly, human dignity is offended, with a resulting threat to justice and peace ...

"THE WORLD NEEDS GOD"

The world needs God. It needs universal, shared ethical and spiritual values, and religion can offer a precious contribution to their pursuit, for the building of a just and peaceful social order at the national and international levels.

AN APPEAL TO PEACEMAKERS

I invite all those who wish to be peacemakers, especially the young, to heed the voice speaking within their hearts and thus to find in God the stable point of reference for attaining authentic freedom, the inexhaustible force which can give the world a new direction and spirit and overcome the mistakes of the past.

"AUTHENTIC WEAPON OF PEACE"

Religious freedom is an authentic weapon of peace, with an historical and prophetic mission. Peace brings to full fruition the deepest qualities and potentials of the human person, the qualities which can change the world and make it better. It gives hope for a future of justice and peace, even in the face of grave injustice and material and moral poverty.

"THE PATH TO PEACE"

May all men and women, and societies at every level and in every part of the earth, soon be able to experience religious freedom, the path to peace!

(Source: Message for World Day of Peace, dated 12/8/2010)