Vatican conference to mark 50 years of encyclical, ‘Pacem in Terris’

September 27, 2013 - A 3-day conference is being organized in the Vatican next week to mark the 50^th anniversary of the Pope John XXIII’s landmark encyclical ‘Pacem in Terris’. The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace held a press conference in the Vatican on Thursday, saying the Oct 2-4 conference will focus on international peacekeeping efforts, new frontiers in peace efforts, and education for peace. The last encyclical of John XXIII, who died from cancer two months after its completion, ‘Pacem in Terris’, or “Peace on Earth” in Latin, dated 11 April 1963, was the first encyclical that the Pope addressed to "all men of good will", rather than only to Catholics. The full title of the encyclical is on establishing universal peace in truth, justice, charity and liberty. The president of the Pontifical Council, Cardinal Peter Turkson said that next week’s conference intends to be an occasion for reflection on the current relevance and realization of the principles of the encyclical in contemporary reality and to hasten the implementation of its fundamental teachings in the areas of human rights, the common good, and politics. These are all fields, Cardinal Turkson said, “in which the peaceful co-existence of peoples and nations is at stake. Indeed, to achieve peace, rather than offering theories on peace or war, Pope John made an appeal to man himself and to his dignity”. (Source: Vatican)