MESSAGE
OF HIS HOLINESS
POPE BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE
WORLD DAY OF PEACE
POPE BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE
WORLD DAY OF PEACE
1 JANUARY 2011
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, THE PATH TO PEACE
1. At the beginning of the new year I offer good wishes to each and all for
serenity and prosperity, but especially for peace. Sadly, the year now ending
has again been marked by persecution, discrimination, terrible acts of violence
and religious intolerance.
My thoughts turn in a special way to the beloved country of Iraq, which
continues to be a theatre of violence and strife as it makes its way towards a
future of stability and reconciliation.
I think of the recent sufferings of the
Christian community, and in particular the reprehensible attack on the Syro-Catholic
Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Baghdad, where on 31 October two
priests and over fifty faithful were killed as they gathered for the celebration
of Holy Mass.
In the days that followed, other attacks ensued, even on private
homes, spreading fear within the Christian community and a desire on the part of
many to emigrate in search of a better life.
I assure them of my own closeness
and that of the entire Church, a closeness which found concrete expression in
the recent
Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops. The
Synod encouraged the Catholic communities in Iraq and throughout the Middle East
to live in communion and to continue to offer a courageous witness of faith in
those lands.
I offer heartfelt thanks to those Governments which are working to alleviate the
sufferings of these, our brothers and sisters in the human family, and I ask all
Catholics for their prayers and support for their brethren in the faith who are
victims of violence and intolerance. In this context, I have felt it
particularly appropriate to share some reflections on religious freedom as the
path to peace.
It is painful to think that in some areas of the world it is
impossible to profess one’s religion freely except at the risk of life and
personal liberty. In other areas we see more subtle and sophisticated forms of
prejudice and hostility towards believers and religious symbols. At present,
Christians are the religious group which suffers most from persecution on
account of its faith.
Many Christians experience daily affronts and often live
in fear because of their pursuit of truth, their faith in Jesus Christ and their
heartfelt plea for respect for religious freedom. This situation is
unacceptable, since it represents an insult to God and to human dignity;
furthermore, it is a threat to security and peace, and an obstacle to the
achievement of authentic and integral human development.[1]
Religious freedom expresses what is unique about the human person, for it allows
us to direct our personal and social life to God, in whose light the identity,
meaning and purpose of the person are fully understood. To deny or arbitrarily
restrict this freedom is to foster a reductive vision of the human person; to
eclipse the public role of religion is to create a society which is unjust,
inasmuch as it fails to take account of the true nature of the human person;
it is to stifle the growth of the authentic and lasting peace of the whole human
family.
For this reason, 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). This is the sentiment which
inspires and directs this Message for the XLIV World Day of Peace,
devoted to the theme: Religious Freedom, the Path to Peace.
A sacred right to life and to a spiritual life
2. The right to religious freedom is rooted in the very dignity of the
human person,[2]
whose transcendent nature must not be ignored or overlooked. God created man
and woman in his own image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:27).
For this reason
each person is endowed with the sacred right to a full life, also from a
spiritual standpoint. Without the acknowledgement of his spiritual being,
without openness to the transcendent, the human person withdraws within himself,
fails to find answers to the heart’s deepest questions about life’s meaning,
fails to appropriate lasting ethical values and principles, and fails even to
experience authentic freedom and to build a just society.[3]
Sacred Scripture, in harmony with our own experience, reveals the
profound value of human dignity: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your
fingers, the moon and the stars which you have established, what is man that you
are mindful of him, and the son of man, that you care for him? Yet you have
made him little less than God, and crowned him with glory and honour. You have
given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under
his feet” (Ps 8:3-6).
Contemplating the sublime reality of human nature, we can experience
the same amazement felt by the Psalmist. Our nature appears as openness to the
Mystery, a capacity to ask deep questions about ourselves and the origin of the
universe, and a profound echo of the supreme Love of God, the beginning and end
of all things, of every person and people.[4]
The transcendent dignity of the person is an essential value of Judeo-Christian
wisdom, yet thanks to the use of reason, it can be recognized by all. This
dignity, understood as a capacity to transcend one’s own materiality and to seek
truth, must be acknowledged as a universal good, indispensable for the
building of a society directed to human fulfilment. Respect for essential
elements of human dignity, such as the right to life and the right to religious
freedom, is a condition for the moral legitimacy of every social and legal norm.
Religious freedom and mutual respect
3. Religious freedom is at the origin of moral freedom.
Openness to
truth and perfect goodness, openness to God, is rooted in human nature; it
confers full dignity on each individual and is the guarantee of full mutual
respect between persons. Religious freedom should be understood, then, not
merely as immunity from coercion, but even more fundamentally as an ability to
order one’s own choices in accordance with truth.
Freedom and respect are inseparable; indeed, “in exercising their
rights, individuals and social groups are bound by the moral law to have regard
for the rights of others, their own duties to others and the common good of
all”.[5]
A freedom which is hostile or indifferent to God becomes
self-negating and does not guarantee full respect for others. A will which
believes itself radically incapable of seeking truth and goodness has no
objective reasons or motives for acting save those imposed by its fleeting and
contingent interests; it does not have an “identity” to safeguard and build up
through truly free and conscious decisions.
As a result, it cannot demand
respect from other “wills”, which are themselves detached from their own deepest
being and thus capable of imposing other “reasons” or, for that matter, no
“reason” at all. The illusion that moral relativism provides the key for
peaceful coexistence is actually the origin of divisions and the denial of the
dignity of human beings.
Hence we can see the need for recognition of a twofold
dimension within the unity of the human person: a religious dimension and
a social dimension. In this regard, “it is inconceivable that believers
should have to suppress a part of themselves – their faith – in order to be
active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy
one’s rights”.[6]
The family, the school of freedom and peace
4. 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 founded on marriage, as the expression of the close union
and complementarity between a man and a woman, finds its place here as the first
school for the social, cultural, moral and spiritual formation and growth of
children, who should always be able to see in their father and mother the first
witnesses of a life directed to the pursuit of truth and the love of God.
Parents must be always free to transmit to their children, responsibly and
without constraints, their heritage of faith, values and culture. The family,
the first cell of human society, remains the primary training ground for
harmonious relations at every level of coexistence, human, national and
international.
Wisdom suggests that this is the road to building a strong and
fraternal social fabric, in which young people can be prepared to assume their
proper responsibilities in life, in a free society, and in a spirit of
understanding and peace.
A common patrimony
5. It could be said that among the fundamental rights and freedoms
rooted in the dignity of the person, religious freedom enjoys a special status.
When religious freedom is acknowledged, the dignity of the human person is
respected at its root, and the ethos and institutions of peoples are
strengthened.
On the other hand, 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, which are grounded in that right social order established in
the light of Supreme Truth and Supreme Goodness.
Religious freedom is, in this sense, also an achievement of a sound
political and juridical culture.
It is an essential good: each person must
be able freely to exercise the right to profess and manifest, individually or in
community, his or her own religion or faith, in public and in private, in
teaching, in practice, in publications, in worship and in ritual observances.
There should be no obstacles should he or she eventually wish to belong to
another religion or profess none at all. In this context, international law is
a model and an essential point of reference for states, insofar as it allows no
derogation from religious freedom, as long as the just requirements of public
order are observed.[7]
The international order thus recognizes that rights of a religious nature have
the same status as the right to life and to personal freedom, as proof of the
fact that they belong to the essential core of human rights, to those
universal and natural rights which human law can never deny.
Religious freedom is not the exclusive patrimony of believers, but
of the whole family of the earth’s peoples.
It is an essential element of a
constitutional state; it cannot be denied without at the same time encroaching
on all fundamental rights and freedoms, since it is their synthesis and
keystone.
It is “the litmus test for the respect of all the other human
rights”.[8]
While it favours the exercise of our most specifically human faculties, it
creates the necessary premises for the attainment of an integral development
which concerns the whole of the person in every single dimension.[9]
The public dimension of religion
6. Religious freedom, like every freedom, proceeds from the personal
sphere and is achieved in relationship with others. Freedom without
relationship is not full freedom.
Religious freedom is not limited to the
individual dimension alone, but is attained within one’s community and in
society, in a way consistent with the relational being of the person and the
public nature of religion.
Relationship is a decisive component in religious freedom, which
impels the community of believers to practise solidarity for the common good.
In this communitarian dimension, each person remains unique and unrepeatable,
while at the same time finding completion and full realization.
The contribution of religious communities to society is undeniable.
Numerous charitable and cultural institutions testify to the constructive role
played by believers in the life of society.
More important still is religion’s
ethical contribution in the political sphere.
Religion should not be
marginalized or prohibited, but seen as making an effective contribution to the
promotion of the common good. In this context mention should be made of the
religious dimension of culture, built up over centuries thanks to the social and
especially ethical contributions of religion.
This dimension is in no way
discriminatory towards those who do not share its beliefs, but instead
reinforces social cohesion, integration and solidarity.
Religious freedom, a force for freedom and civilization: dangers arising from its exploitation
7. The exploitation of religious freedom to disguise hidden interests,
such as the subversion of the established order, the hoarding of resources or
the grip on power of a single group, can cause enormous harm to societies.
Fanaticism, fundamentalism and practices contrary to human dignity can never be
justified, even less so in the name of religion.
The profession of a religion
cannot be exploited or imposed by force. States and the various human
communities must never forget that religious freedom is the condition for the
pursuit of truth, and truth does not impose itself by violence but “by the force
of its own truth”.[10]
In this sense, religion is a positive driving force for the building of
civil and political society.
How can anyone deny the contribution of the world’s great religions to
the development of civilization?
The sincere search for God has led to greater
respect for human dignity. Christian communities, with their patrimony of
values and principles, have contributed much to making individuals and peoples
aware of their identity and their dignity, the establishment of democratic
institutions and the recognition of human rights and their corresponding duties.
Today too, in an increasingly globalized society, Christians are
called, not only through their responsible involvement in civic, economic and
political life but also through the witness of their charity and faith, to offer
a valuable contribution to the laborious and stimulating pursuit of justice,
integral human development and the right ordering of human affairs.
The
exclusion of religion from public life deprives the latter of a dimension open
to transcendence.
Without this fundamental experience it becomes difficult to
guide societies towards universal ethical principles and to establish at the
national and international level a legal order which fully recognizes and
respects fundamental rights and freedoms as these are set forth in the goals –
sadly still disregarded or contradicted – of the 1948 Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.
An issue of justice and civility: fundamentalism and hostility to believers
compromise the positive secularity of states
compromise the positive secularity of states
8. The same determination that condemns every form of fanaticism and
religious fundamentalism must also oppose every form of hostility to religion
that would restrict the public role of believers in civil and political life.
It should be clear that religious fundamentalism and secularism are
alike in that both represent extreme forms of a rejection of legitimate
pluralism and the principle of secularity.
Both absolutize a reductive and
partial vision of the human person, favouring in the one case forms of religious
integralism and, in the other, of rationalism.
A society that would
violently impose or, on the contrary, reject religion is not only unjust to
individuals and to God, but also to itself. God beckons humanity with a loving
plan that, while engaging the whole person in his or her natural and spiritual
dimensions, calls for a free and responsible answer which engages the whole
heart and being, individual and communitarian.
Society too, as an
expression of the person and of all his or her constitutive dimensions, must
live and organize itself in a way that favours openness to transcendence.
Precisely for this reason, the laws and institutions of a society cannot be
shaped in such a way as to ignore the religious dimension of its citizens or to
prescind completely from it.
Through the democratic activity of citizens
conscious of their lofty calling, those laws and institutions must adequately
reflect the authentic nature of the person and support its religious dimension.
Since the latter is not a creation of the state, it cannot be manipulated by the
state, but must rather be acknowledged and respected by it.
Whenever the legal system at any level, national or international,
allows or tolerates religious or antireligious fanaticism, it fails in its
mission, which is to protect and promote justice and the rights of all.
These
matters cannot be left to the discretion of the legislator or the majority
since, as Cicero once pointed out, justice is something more than a mere act
which produces and applies law.
It entails acknowledging the dignity of each
person[11]
which, unless religious freedom is guaranteed and lived in its essence, ends up
being curtailed and offended, exposed to the risk of falling under the sway of
idols, of relative goods which then become absolute.
All this exposes society
to the risk of forms of political and ideological totalitarianism which
emphasize public power while demeaning and restricting freedom of conscience,
thought and religion as potential competitors.
Dialogue between civil and religious institutions
9. The patrimony of principles and values expressed by an authentic
religiosity is a source of enrichment for peoples and their ethos.
It
speaks directly to the conscience and mind of men and women, it recalls the need
for moral conversion, and it encourages the practice of the virtues and a loving
approach to others as brothers and sisters, as members of the larger human
family.[12]
With due respect for the positive secularity of state institutions, the public
dimension of religion must always be acknowledged.
A healthy dialogue
between civil and religious institutions is fundamental for the integral
development of the human person and social harmony.
Living in love and in truth
10. In a globalized world marked by increasingly multi-ethnic and
multi-religious societies, the great religions can serve as an important factor
of unity and peace for the human family.
On the basis of their religious
convictions and their reasoned pursuit of the common good, their followers are
called to give responsible expression to their commitment within a context of
religious freedom.
Amid the variety of religious cultures, there is a need to
value those elements which foster civil coexistence, while rejecting whatever is
contrary to the dignity of men and women.
The public space which the international community makes available for
the religions and their proposal of what constitutes a “good life” helps to
create a measure of agreement about truth and goodness, and a moral consensus;
both of these are fundamental to a just and peaceful coexistence.
The leaders
of the great religions, thanks to their position, their influence and their
authority in their respective communities, are the first ones called to mutual
respect and dialogue.
Christians, for their part, are spurred by their faith in God, the
Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, to live as brothers and sisters who encounter
one another in the Church and work together in building a world where
individuals and peoples “shall not hurt or destroy … for the earth shall be full
of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Is 11:9).
Dialogue as a shared pursuit
11. For the Church, dialogue between the followers of the different religions
represents an important means of cooperating with all religious communities for
the common good. The Church herself rejects nothing of what is true and holy in
the various religions.
“She has a high regard for those ways of life and
conduct, precepts and doctrines which, although differing in many ways from her
own teaching, nevertheless often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens
all men and women”.[13]
The path to take is not the way of relativism or religious
syncretism. The Church, in fact, “proclaims, and is in duty bound to
proclaim without fail, Christ who is the way, the truth and the life (Jn
14:6); in Christ, in whom God reconciled all things to himself, people find the
fullness of the religious life”.[14]
Yet this in no way excludes dialogue and the common pursuit of truth in
different areas of life, since, as Saint Thomas Aquinas would say, “every truth,
whoever utters it, comes from the Holy Spirit”.[15]
The year 2011 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of
the World Day of
Prayer for Peace convened in Assisi in 1986 by Pope John Paul II.
On that
occasion the leaders of the great world religions testified to the fact that
religion is a factor of union and peace, and not of division and conflict.
The
memory of that experience gives reason to hope for a future in which all
believers will see themselves, and will actually be, agents of justice and
peace.
Moral truth in politics and diplomacy
12. Politics and diplomacy should look to the moral and spiritual patrimony
offered by the great religions of the world in order to acknowledge and affirm
universal truths, principles and values which cannot be denied without denying
the dignity of the human person.
But what does it mean, in practical terms, to
promote moral truth in the world of politics and diplomacy?
It means acting in
a responsible way on the basis of an objective and integral knowledge of the
facts; it means deconstructing political ideologies which end up supplanting
truth and human dignity in order to promote pseudo-values under the pretext of
peace, development and human rights; it means fostering an unswerving commitment
to base positive law on the principles of the natural law.[16]
All this is necessary and consistent with the respect for the dignity and worth
of the human person enshrined by the world’s peoples in the 1945 Charter of
the United Nations, which presents universal values and moral principles as
a point of reference for the norms, institutions and systems governing
coexistence on the national and international levels.
Beyond hatred and prejudice
13. Despite the lessons of history and the efforts of states, international
and regional organizations, non-governmental organizations and the many men and
women of good will who daily work to protect fundamental rights and freedoms,
today’s world also witnesses cases of persecution, discrimination, acts of
violence and intolerance based on religion.
In a particular way, in Asia and in
Africa, the chief victims are the members of religious minorities, who are
prevented from freely professing or changing their religion by forms of
intimidation and the violation of their rights, basic freedoms and essential
goods, including the loss of personal freedom and life itself.
There also exist – as I have said – more sophisticated forms of hostility to
religion which, in Western countries, occasionally find expression in a denial
of history and the rejection of religious symbols which reflect the identity and
the culture of the majority of citizens.
Often these forms of hostility also
foster hatred and prejudice; they are inconsistent with a serene and balanced
vision of pluralism and the secularity of institutions, to say nothing of the
fact that coming generations risk losing contact with the priceless spiritual
heritage of their countries.
Religion is defended by defending the rights and freedoms of religious
communities. The leaders of the great world religions and the leaders of
nations should therefore renew their commitment to promoting and protecting
religious freedom, and in particular to defending religious minorities; these do
not represent a threat to the identity of the majority but rather an opportunity
for dialogue and mutual cultural enrichment.
Defending them is the ideal way to
consolidate the spirit of good will, openness and reciprocity which can ensure
the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms in all areas and regions of
the world.
Religious freedom in the world
14. Finally I wish to say a word to the Christian communities suffering from
persecution, discrimination, violence and intolerance, particularly in Asia, in
Africa, in the Middle East and especially in the Holy Land, a place chosen and
blessed by God.
I assure them once more of my paternal affection and prayers,
and I ask all those in authority to act promptly to end every injustice against
the Christians living in those lands. In the face of present difficulties, may
Christ’s followers not lose heart, for witnessing to the Gospel is, and
always will be, a sign of contradiction.
Let us take to heart the words of the Lord Jesus: “Blessed are those
who mourn, for they shall be comforted … Blessed are those who hunger and thirst
for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied … Blessed are you when men revile
you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my
account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Mt
5:4-12).
Then let us renew “the pledge we give to be forgiving and to pardon
when we invoke God’s forgiveness in the Our Father.
We ourselves lay
down the condition and the extent of the mercy we ask for when we say: ‘And
forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us’ (Mt
6:12)”.[17]
Violence is not overcome by violence. May our cries of pain always be
accompanied by faith, by hope and by the witness of our love of God.
I also
express my hope that in the West, and especially in Europe, there will be an end
to hostility and prejudice against Christians because they are resolved to
orient their lives in a way consistent with the values and principles expressed
in the Gospel.
May Europe rather be reconciled to its own Christian roots,
which are fundamental for understanding its past, present and future role in
history; in this way it will come to experience justice, concord and peace by
cultivating a sincere dialogue with all peoples.
Religious freedom, the path to peace
15. 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.
Peace is a gift of God and at the same time a task which is never
fully completed. A society reconciled with God is closer to peace, which is
not the mere absence of war or the result of military or economic supremacy,
much less deceptive ploys or clever manipulation.
Rather, peace is the result
of a process of purification and of cultural, moral and spiritual elevation
involving each individual and people, a process in which human dignity is fully
respected.
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.
In the words of Pope Paul VI, to whose wisdom and
farsightedness we owe the institution of the World Day of Peace: “It is
necessary before all else to provide peace with other weapons – different from
those destined to kill and exterminate mankind. What are needed above all are
moral weapons, those which give strength and prestige to international law – the
weapon, in the first place, of the observance of pacts”.[18]
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.
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!
From the Vatican, 8 December 2010
BENEDICTUS PP XVI
[2] Cf. SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Declaration on Religious Freedom
Dignitatis Humanae, 2.
[3] Cf. BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter
Caritas in Veritate, 78.
[4] Cf. SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Declaration on the Relation of the
Church to Non-Christian Religions
Nostra Aetate, 1.
[5] ID., Declaration on Religious Freedom
Dignitatis Humanae, 7.
[6] BENEDICT XVI,
Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations
(18 April 2008): AAS 100 (2008), 337.
[7] Cf. SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Declaration on Religious Freedom
Dignitatis Humanae, 2.
[8] JOHN PAUL II,
Address to Participants in the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) (10 October 2003), 1: AAS 96 (2004), 111.
[9] Cf. BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter
Caritas in Veritate, 11.
[10] Cf. SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Declaration on Religious Freedom
Dignitatis Humanae, 1.
[11] Cf.
CICERO, De Inventione, II, 160.
[12] Cf. BENEDICT XVI,
Address to Representatives of Other Religions in the
United Kingdom
(17 September 2010): L’Osservatore Romano (18 September 2010), p. 12.
[13] Cf. SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Declaration on the Relation of the
Church to Non-Christian Religions
Nostra Aetate, 2.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Super
Evangelium Joannis, I, 3.
[16] Cf. BENEDICT XVI,
Address to Civil Authorities and the Diplomatic
Corps in Cyprus (4 June 2010): L’Osservatore Romano (6 June 2010), p. 8; INTERNATIONAL
THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION, The Search for Universal Ethics: A New Look at
Natural Law, Vatican City, 2009.
[17] PAUL VI,
Message for the 1976 World Day of Peace: AAS 67
(1975), 671.
[18] Ibid.,
p. 668.