The Pope addressed a message to participants at the 4th Forum for Peace, held as part of the commemoration of the 1918 armistice in Paris.

Newsroom (12/11/2021 10:45 AM, Gaudium Press) On the 103rd anniversary of the WWI Armistice of November 11, 1918, Pope Francis addressed the participants of the 4th Forum for Peace in Paris. The Pontiff hoped that the meeting would be fruitful in promoting Peace.

Francis expressed his concern regarding the proliferation of armament among the nations and noted how easily weapons are traded worldwide. According to him, there must be a collective commitment to strive for disarmament, to build Peace. The Pope stated that Peace should be based on mutual trust, citing John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris.

In his message, Francis encouraged fostering hope, a virtue that “encourages action from the awareness that reality can be changed.” The Pope wishes that Christian tradition will help peoples realize how “injustice and violence are not inevitable, are not our destiny.”

Francis took the opportunity to encourage real change after the difficult time the world has gone through: “Our conscience calls us, therefore, to a responsible hope, that is, concretely, not to follow the easy path of returning to a normality marked by injustice, but to accept the challenge of taking on the crisis as a concrete opportunity for conversion, for transformation, for rethinking our way of life and our economic and social systems,” he explained.

The Supreme Pontiff ended his message with a verse from the Prophet Jeremiah, summarizing his words and intentions: “Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” (Jer 6:16) (FM)

With information from VaticanNews.

Compiled by Gustavo Kralj