The Catholic Church dedicates 1 January to “The Day of Peace”. It was instituted by Pope Paul VI in a papal message issued on 8 December 1967 entitled “Message for the Observance of a Day of Peace”.

In the Holy Father’s words, the rationale behind such a day is that “peace with its just and beneficent equilibrium may dominate the development of events to come”. Thus, the annual celebration of “The Day of Peace” is to promote “that sincere and strong character of conscious humanity, redeemed from its sad and fatal bellicose conflicts, which will give to the history of the world a more happy, ordered and civilized development”.

The Pope outlined four major threats that put peace at the awful risk of its own extinction. Among them one finds selfishness among nations, violence, despair, the nuclear arms race and wars. Hence, “the necessity of defending peace in the face of dangers which always threaten it: the danger of the survival of selfishness in the relations among nations; the danger of violence into which some populations can allow themselves to be drawn by desperation at not having their right to life and human dignity recognised and respected; the danger, today tremendously increased, of recourse to frightful weapons of extermination, which some nations possess, spending enormous sums of money, the expenditure of which is reason for painful reflection in the presence of the grave needs which hinder the development of so many other peoples; the danger of believing that international controversies cannot be resolved by the ways of reason, that is, by negotiations founded on law, justice, and equity, but only by means of deterrent and murderous forces”.

In order to tackle such a complex problem realistically, the human person must be educated in and for peace so that in due time he/she will end up being a peacemaker, thereby transforming society’s thinking and way of behaving. Indeed, Jesus, “our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph 2, 14), called the peacemakers “sons of God” (Matt 5, 9) simply because by their spirit of meekness, “they shall inherit the earth”

(Matt 5, 5). Similarly, Pope Paul VI said, “The subjective foundation of peace is a new spirit which must animate coexistence between peoples, a new outlook on man, his duties and his destiny.

Much progress must still be made to render this outlook universal and effective; a new training must educate the new generations to reciprocal respect between nations, to brotherhood between peoples, to collaboration between races, with a view also to their progress and development”.

What kind of peace is the Church intending to celebrate on this day?

For the Italian Pontiff, “true peace” is equivalent “to just and balanced peace, in the sincere recognition of the rights of the human person and of the independence of the individual nations”.

Consequently, genuine peace promulgates the loftiest and most universal values of life, namely, truth, justice, freedom and love.

Hence, “it is for the protection of these values that [the Church] place them beneath the banner of Peace, and that [she] invite[s] men and nations to raise, at the dawn of the new year, this banner which must guide the ship of civilization through the inescapable storms of history to the harbour of its highest destiny”.

At the height of the Cuban missile crisis, Blessed John XXIII broadcast the following radio message: “We beg all governments not to remain deaf to this cry of humanity. That they do all that is in their power to save peace. They will thus spare the world from the horrors of a war whose terrifying consequences no one can predict. That they continue discussions, as this loyal and open behaviour has great value as a witness of everyone’s conscience and before history. Promoting, favouring, accepting conversations, at all levels and in any time, is a rule of wisdom and prudence which attracts the blessings of heaven and earth.”

Can peace be a leading subject in the way we think, feel, converse and act personally and collectively?

Mario Attard OFM Cap