Benedict XVI's Message for the World
Day of Peace 2013 risks becoming a declaration of war. Not because the
pope has "military divisions," as Stalin sought, but because he, the
universal pastor, lists the enemies of peace from the first to the last.
Too
often we only consider "enemies" those who possess weapons, terrorists,
organized crime, and fundamentalist fanatics. The Pope certainly
mentions them, but he couples them with all those who are not engaged in
the pursuit of the common good: a selfish and individualistic
mentality, a deregulated financial capitalism (see paragraph 1);
liberalist policies of abortion and euthanasia (n . 4); relativism with
its "false claims or arbitrariness" that undermine marriage between men
and women (n = 4), and the radical economic liberalism and technocracy,
which in the name of profit undermine the networks of solidarity and the
right to work (No. 4); violations of religious freedom (n. 4).
This
means that from now on it will be much clearer to link the title of
"terrorist" and destroyer of peace to those who spread abortion pills in
Europe and pursue policies for population control, perhaps with forced
abortions and sterilizations such as in China. Those who claim the
freedom of gay marriage, punishing the "verbal racism" of those parents
who still speak of mother and father and define their children as "male"
and "female" undermine peace. The title of terrorist can also be
ascribed to those powers that have saved their financial investments
condemning millions of workers worldwide to the misery.
The pope says
that the principles of all these issues (life, marriage, work, etc ...)
are not of a "confessional", but human nature: "They are inscribed in
human nature itself, accessible to reason and thus common to all
humanity. The Church's efforts to promote them are not therefore
confessional in character, but addressed to all people, whatever their
religious affiliation". (n. 4). They are the expression of man's innate
desire of inspiration to peace, a "right and duty of an integral
development, social, community, and this is part of God's plan for man"
(No. 1).
The West's hopeless demographic winter; imbalances between
males and females in China and India; the psychopathology of the
children of gay couples; social unrest over the jobs crisis are there to
show how true the Pope's words are that " The precondition for peace is
the dismantling of the dictatorship of relativism and of the
supposition of a completely autonomous morality which precludes
acknowledgment of the ineluctable natural moral law inscribed by God
upon the conscience of every man and woman" (n. 2).
Benedict XVI does not stop at merely denouncing the enemies of peace.
He proposes a kind of "cultural revolution": "... It is indispensable,
then, that the various cultures in our day overcome forms of
anthropology and ethics based on technical and practical suppositions
which are merely subjectivistic and pragmatic, in virtue of which
relationships of coexistence are inspired by criteria of power or
profit, means become ends and vice versa, and culture and education are
centred on instruments, technique and efficiency alone"(n. 2). In short,
"peace requires a humanism open to transcendence" (no. 2).
The re-establishment of our cultures is the answer to the desire for
change and truth that is heard in many sectors of society. This
"revolution" is more than just search for "a new development model" it
is the innovation of a new sense of personal dignity, family,
educational institutions, politics and the economy.
The Pope calls for
"a solid anthropological and ethical foundation" for "economic and
financial activities" and "support for fresh thinking and a new cultural
synthesis so as to overcome purely technical approaches and to
harmonize the various political currents with a view to the common
good."
The task of Christians is to rediscover together with all
peacemakers that "Peace is the building up of coexistence in rational
and moral terms, based on a foundation whose measure is not created by
man, but rather by God. (n. 2). For this reason, the task of the Church
is to proclaim Jesus Christ, "the first and principal factor of the
integral development of peoples and also of peace" (n. 3). Only in this
way, "Peace is not a dream, not a utopia: it is possible."