THE TABLET
Dec. 29, 2007
A Message of Peace

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Each year since l968 on the occasion of New Year’s Day, the Roman Pontiffs have issued a message for the celebration of the World Day of Peace.  This year marks the 40th anniversary of this custom, which was begun by Pope Paul VI.  Pope Benedict XVI entitles his message for 2008, The Human Family, A Community of Peace.

The message for World Day of Peace over these forty years always concentrated on a particular aspect of peace-building.  The message from Pope Benedict XVI goes to the heart of the matter. He concentrates on the family, the source and primary place of humanization for the person in society, the cradle of life and love and an institution which stands at the foundation of the human person as a prototype of every social order. 

The family is the center of all that happens in the world.  If we will understand how we belong to the greater human family and must live in peace, we must first be at peace in our own individual families.  This is a step that cannot be skipped, and perhaps the turmoil in the world today is a reflection of the turmoil that we find in our families.  At the same time, the Holy Father said that the language of the family is the language of peace. Unfortunately, the vocabulary that we use today to express peace and love is limited.  It is only in the family, however, where we can learn the structure of peace and how love truly must be exchanged with the members of your individual families and eventually with the whole human family.

Humanity is one great family.  As we understand our common Father who is creator of all, we understand how we must be related to each and every one who are the subjects of His creation.  It is never easy, in situations of conflict and war especially, to see those who are enemies as our brothers and sisters.  This is the challenge before us in our world. 

The family creates the human community and the environment in which peace is possible.  One of the threats to world peace today, the Holy Father reminds us, is our damage to the environment.  We are the stewards of God’s creation and we must use wisely the resources that God has put at our disposal, without harm to our environment and certainly to one another.  This becomes another challenge to world peace.

The family also creates the human community and the economy which supports peace and families in the world.  In our own situation here in Brooklyn and Queens, the latest threat to our families is the loss of their homes.  The subprime mortgage crisis is directly affecting many families in Brooklyn and Queens who can no longer pay their mortgages and are in danger of losing their homes and even becoming homeless.  Through Catholic Charities and our Vicar for Human Services, Monsignor Alfred LoPinto, I myself am trying to develop a political and economic coalition to directly address the loss of families’ homes in our Diocese.  We must act together quickly. As the major lending institutions write off these debts, there is little being done to save the homes of families that may be lost.

The family also creates the human community and must be guided by moral law.  The threats to the family today stem from the redefinition of family that is current.  Almost any union of peoples is called a family, although the nuclear family, mother, father and children, certainly has other manifestations.  We cannot redefine family because of the present-day breakdown of the family.  The moral law must always be the family in which children can learn the fundamentals of peace, justice and love.

Finally, the Holy Father comments on how we can overcome conflicts, which eventually will lead to disarmament.  In many places in the world, such as Africa and the Middle East, we see families suffering the consequences of war.  I was particularly reminded of my visit last summer to the Iraqi refugee families scattered throughout the Middle East in the four countries I visited.  These families fled in order to preserve their families, leaving all their possessions in the hope that their children might find peace and freedom.  This same phenomenon is repeated time and time again in the course of our present history and in the past.

The 40th anniversary of the celebration of the World Day of Peace gives us an opportunity to pray together for world peace, especially for peace in our families.  Peace is certainly an adventure in “putting out into the deep,” recognizing that peace involves sacrifice and change.  Let us make it our joint prayer that we will see greater peace in the world in the New Year to come.