BUILDING PEACE IS A PERMANENT COMMITMENT

VATICAN CITY, APR 6, 2003 (VIS) - Before praying the Angelus today with the faithful who had assembled in St. Peter's Square, the Holy Father recalled that forty years ago, on April 11, 1963, Blessed John XXIII published "the Encyclical 'Pacem in terris' (Peace on earth) in which he traced the outline for an efficacious promotion of peace in the world. This Encyclical is still very current today."

John Paul II added that "building peace is a 'permanent commitment'. The reality of these days shows this in a dramatic way. My thoughts now go in a special way to Iraq and all those involved in the war that continues. I am thinking especially of the defenseless civilian populations who in various cities are undergoing harsh trials. May it be God's will that this conflict will soon end and give way to a new era of pardon, love and peace."

"To obtain this goal," he went on, "we must start with the same spirit that animated my venerated predecessor: a spirit of faith, above all, together with realistic and farsighted wisdom. In the Encyclical, he included among 'the signs of the times', the spreading of the 'persuasion that eventual controversies among peoples must not be resolved by recourse to arms, but rather through negotiation'. Unfortunately, this positive goal of civilization has not yet been reached."

The Holy Father then invited young people to join him on Thursday, April 10 in St. Peter's Square for an afternoon of prayer and celebration that traditionally precedes the Palm Sunday observance of World Youth Day. Entrusting youth with "the commitment to peace," he added that "it is indispensable to educate the new generations to peace which must become ever more a style of life, founded, as Pope John taught, on the 'four pillars' of truth, justice, love and liberty."

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