Pope Benedict XV’s Message for the World day of Peace

(December 16, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI in his Message for the World Day of Peace stressed the need for Religious Freedom and Mutual Respect and called for a dialogue between civil and religious institutions. He said that 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. The Pope’s Message for the world day of Peace to be observed on the first of January, was released on the Thursday in Rome. "Religious Freedom, the Path to Peace", is the theme for 2011, as announced already in the month of July. The Pontiff in his message said that 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. At the same time he observed that “in many parts of the world there exist various forms of restrictions or denials of religious freedom, from discrimination and marginalization based on religion, to acts of violence against religious minorities." Emphasizing that religious freedom is about man coming to understand himself, he said “Religious freedom is authentically realized when it is experienced as the coherent search for truth and for the truth about man.” The Pope cautioned that 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. The statement also underlined that the approach “necessarily rejects the ‘religiosity’ of fundamentalism, and the manipulation of truth and of the truth about man. Since such distortions are opposed to the dignity of man and to the search for truth, they cannot be considered as religious freedom,” he said. Pope Benedict said that he was grateful to those Governments which are working to alleviate the sufferings of those brothers and sisters in the human family, and asked all Catholics for their prayers and support for their brethren in the faith who are victims of violence and intolerance.