c. 2005 Religion News Service
VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II said Monday (Jan. 10) that the greatest challenges facing humanity today are respect for life, the fight against hunger, and the quests for peace and freedom.
In a New Year’s address to ambassadors of 175 countries, considered his major statement on international relations of the year, the 84-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff also reviewed events of 2004, saying that the joy of the Christmas season had been “overshadowed” by natural disasters, terrorism and violence.
John Paul recalled the “enormous catastrophe” of the tsunami in south Asia and Africa; cyclones in the Indian Ocean and the Antilles; a plague of locusts in Northwest Africa; “acts of barbarous terrorism” in Iraq, Madrid and Beslan; “inhuman” violence in Darfur; and “atrocities” in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
“These events have caused great anguish and distress,” the pope said. But, he said, “it is God himself who asks us not to yield to discouragement but to overcome every difficulty, however great it may be, by strengthening the common bonds of our humanity and by making them prevail over all considerations.”
Looking forward to the rest of 2005, John Paul reiterated the theme of his message for World Day of Peace, which the Catholic Church observes on New Year’s Day: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
This message, he said, “has a specific application to international relations, and it can be a guide to all in meeting the great challenges facing humanity today.” He put the challenges in four categories:
_ Life. The pope upheld the church’s opposition to abortion and assisted procreation and labeled the use of human embryonic stem cells for research and cloning “ethnically inadmissible.” He said that laws permitting same-sex marriages attack “the very sanctuary of life: the family” and are “based on a narrow and unnatural vision of man.”
_ Food. Citing “dramatic” statistics showing that hundreds of millions of people suffer from serious malnutrition and millions of children die each year from the effects of hunger, the pope called for “a vast moral mobilization of public opinion,” especially by leaders of the more prosperous countries, to fight hunger. The principle of the “universal destination of the Earth’s goods” should serve “to advance a radical commitment to justice and a more attentive and determined display of solidarity,” he said.
_ Peace. The pope deplored the “tragic evils” caused by warfare in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America and “the brutal, inhuman phenomenon of terrorism, a scourge which has taken on a global dimension unknown to previous generations.” He said there is greater cooperation in Africa to resolve disagreements and meet emergencies through the African Union and international organizations, and he saw “hope of a political breakthrough in the direction of dialogue and negotiations in the Middle East.” He offered the example of Europe where “nations which were once fierce enemies locked in deadly wars” have joined together in the European Union and last year wrote a new EU constitution.
_ Freedom. Upholding the freedom of states and their citizens as “a great good,” the pope renewed the church’s appeal for religious freedom as well. “At the very heart of human freedom is the right to religious freedom since it deals with man’s most fundamental relationship: his relationship with God,” John Paul said. He dismissed fears that the church might use its freedom to “intrude” into politics. “The church is able carefully to distinguish, as she must, what belongs to Caesar from what belongs to God,” he said.
John Paul’s international priorities go beyond just religious significance because the Vatican has full diplomatic relations with 174 countries, the EU and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and special relations with Russia and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
MO/PH END RNS
