MESSAGE
OF HIS HOLINESS POPE
FRANCIS
FOR THE LVIII
WORLD DAY OF PEACE
1st JANUARY 2025
Forgive
us our trespasses: grant us your peace
I. Listening to the plea of an
endangered humanity
1. At the dawn of this New Year given to us by our
heavenly Father, a year of Jubilee in the spirit of hope, I offer heartfelt
good wishes of peace to every man and woman. I think especially of those who
feel downtrodden, burdened by their past mistakes, oppressed by the judgment of
others and incapable of perceiving even a glimmer of hope for their own lives.
Upon everyone I invoke hope and peace, for this is a Year of Grace born of the
Heart of the Redeemer!
2. Throughout this year, the Catholic Church
celebrates the Jubilee, an event that fills hearts with hope. The “jubilee”
recalls an ancient Jewish practice, when, every forty-ninth year, the sound of
a ram’s horn (in Hebrew, jobel) would proclaim a year of
forgiveness and freedom for the entire people (cf. Lev 25:10).
This solemn proclamation was meant to echo throughout the land (cf. Lev 25:9)
and to restore God’s justice in every aspect of life: in the use of the land,
in the possession of goods and in relationships with others, above all the poor
and the dispossessed. The blowing of the horn reminded the entire people, rich
and poor alike, that no one comes into this world doomed to oppression: all of
us are brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the same Father, born to
live in freedom, in accordance with the Lord’s will (cf. Lev 25:17,
25, 43, 46, 55).
3. In our day too, the Jubilee is an event that
inspires us to seek to establish the liberating justice of God in our world. In
place of the ram’s horn, at the start of this Year of Grace we wish to hear the
“desperate plea for help” [1] that, like the cry of the blood of
Abel (cf. Gen 4:10), rises up from so many parts of our world
– a plea that God never fails to hear. We for our part feel bound to cry out
and denounce the many situations in which the earth is exploited and our
neighbours oppressed. [2] These injustices can appear at times
in the form of what Saint John Paul II called “structures of sin”, [3] that arise not only from injustice
on the part of some but are also consolidated and maintained by a network of
complicity.
4. Each of us must feel in some way responsible for
the devastation to which the earth, our common home, has been subjected,
beginning with those actions that, albeit only indirectly, fuel the conflicts
that presently plague our human family. Systemic challenges, distinct yet
interconnected, are thus created and together cause havoc in our world. [4] I think, in particular, of all
manner of disparities, the inhuman treatment meted out to migrants,
environmental decay, the confusion willfully created by disinformation, the
refusal to engage in any form of dialogue and the immense resources spent on
the industry of war. All these, taken together, represent a threat to the
existence of humanity as a whole. At the beginning of this year, then, we
desire to heed the plea of suffering humankind in order to feel called,
together and as individuals, to break the bonds of injustice and to proclaim
God’s justice. Sporadic acts of philanthropy are not enough. Cultural and
structural changes are necessary, so that enduring change may come about. [5]
II. A
cultural change: all of us are debtors
5. The celebration of the Jubilee spurs us to make
a number of changes in order to confront the present state of injustice and
inequality by reminding ourselves that the goods of the earth are meant not for
a privileged few, but for everyone. [6] We do well to recall the words of
Saint Basil of Caesarea: “Tell me, what things belong to you? Where did you
find them to make them part of your life? … Did you not come forth naked from
the womb of your mother? Will you not return naked to the ground? Where did
your property come from? If you say that it comes to you naturally by luck, you
would deny God by not recognizing the Creator and being grateful to the
Giver”. [7] Without gratitude, we are unable to
recognize God’s gifts. Yet in his infinite mercy the Lord does not abandon
sinful humanity, but instead reaffirms his gift of life by the
saving forgiveness offered to all through Jesus Christ. That
is why, in teaching us the “Our Father”, Jesus told us to pray: “Forgive us our
trespasses” ( Mt 6:12).
6. Once we lose sight of our relationship to the
Father, we begin to cherish the illusion that our relationships with others can
be governed by a logic of exploitation and oppression, where might makes
right. [8] Like the elites at the time of
Jesus, who profited from the suffering of the poor, so today, in our
interconnected global village, [9] the international system, unless it
is inspired by a spirit of solidarity and interdependence, gives rise to
injustices, aggravated by corruption, which leave the poorer countries trapped.
A mentality that exploits the indebted can serve as a shorthand description of
the present “debt crisis” that weighs upon a number of countries, above all in
the global South.
7. I have repeatedly stated that foreign debt has
become a means of control whereby certain governments and private financial
institutions of the richer countries unscrupulously and indiscriminately
exploit the human and natural resources of poorer countries, simply to satisfy
the demands of their own markets. [10] In addition, different peoples,
already burdened by international debt, find themselves also forced to bear the
burden of the “ecological debt” incurred by the more developed countries. [11] Foreign debt and ecological debt
are two sides of the same coin, namely the mindset of exploitation that has
culminated in the debt crisis. [12] In the spirit of this Jubilee Year,
I urge the international community to work towards forgiving foreign debt in
recognition of the ecological debt existing between the North and the South of
this world. This is an appeal for solidarity, but above all for justice. [13]
8. The cultural and structural change needed to
surmount this crisis will come about when we finally recognize that we are all
sons and daughters of the one Father, that we are all in his debt but also that
we need one another, in a spirit of shared and diversified responsibility. We
will be able to “rediscover once for all that we need one another” and are
indebted one to another. [14]
III. A
journey of hope: three proposals
9. If we take to heart these much-needed changes,
the Jubilee Year of Grace can serve to set each of us on a renewed journey of
hope, born of the experience of God’s unlimited mercy. [15]
God owes nothing to anyone, yet he constantly
bestows his grace and mercy upon all. As Isaac of Nineveh, a seventh-century
Father of the Eastern Church, put it in one of his prayers: “Your love, Lord,
is greater than my trespasses. The waves of the sea are nothing with respect to
the multitude of my sins, but placed on a scale and weighed against your love,
they vanish like a speck of dust”. [16] God does not weigh up the evils we
commit; rather, he is immensely “rich in mercy, for the great love with which
he loved us” ( Eph 2:4). Yet he also hears the plea of the
poor and the cry of the earth. We would do well simply to stop for a moment, at
the beginning of this year, to think of the mercy with which he constantly
forgives our sins and forgives our every debt, so that our hearts may overflow
with hope and peace.
10. In teaching us to pray the “Our Father”, Jesus
begins by asking the Father to forgive our trespasses, but passes immediately
to the challenging words: “as we forgive those who trespass against us”
(cf. Mt 6:12). In order to forgive others their trespasses and
to offer them hope, we need for our own lives to be filled with that same hope,
the fruit of our experience of God’s mercy. Hope overflows in generosity; it is
free of calculation, makes no hidden demands, is unconcerned with gain, but
aims at one thing alone: to raise up those who have fallen, to heal hearts that
are broken and to set us free from every kind of bondage.
11. Consequently, at the beginning of this Year of
Grace, I would like to offer three proposals capable of restoring dignity to
the lives of entire peoples and enabling them to set them out anew on the
journey of hope. In this way, the debt crisis can be overcome and all of us can
once more realize that we are debtors whose debts have been forgiven.
First, I renew the appeal launched by Saint John Paul II on the occasion of the Great Jubilee of the
Year 2000 to consider “reducing substantially, if not cancelling outright, the
international debt which seriously threatens the future of many nations”. [17] In recognition of their ecological
debt, the more prosperous countries ought to feel called to do everything
possible to forgive the debts of those countries that are in no condition to
repay the amount they owe. Naturally, lest this prove merely an isolated act of
charity that simply reboots the vicious cycle of financing and indebtedness, a
new financial framework must be devised, leading to the creation of a global
financial Charter based on solidarity and harmony between peoples.
I also ask for a firm commitment to respect for the
dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person can
cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to a future of
prosperity and happiness for themselves and for their children. Without hope
for the future, it becomes hard for the young to look forward to bringing new
lives into the world. Here I would like once more to propose a concrete gesture
that can help foster the culture of life, namely the elimination of the death
penalty in all nations. This penalty not only compromises the inviolability of
life but eliminates every human hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation. [18]
In addition, following in the footsteps of Saint
Paul VI and Benedict XVI, [19] I do not hesitate to make yet
another appeal, for the sake of future generations. In this time marked by
wars, let us use at least a fixed percentage of the money earmarked for
armaments to establish a global Fund to eradicate hunger and facilitate in the
poorer countries educational activities aimed at promoting sustainable
development and combating climate change. [20] We need to work at eliminating
every pretext that encourages young people to regard their future as hopeless
or dominated by the thirst to avenge the blood of their dear ones. The future
is a gift meant to enable us to go beyond past failures and to pave new paths of
peace.
IV. The
goal of peace
12. Those who take up these proposals and set out
on the journey of hope will surely glimpse the dawn of the greatly desired goal
of peace. The Psalmist promises us that “steadfast love and faithfulness will
meet; righteousness and peace will kiss” ( Ps 85:10). When I
divest myself of the weapon of credit and restore the path of hope to one of my
brothers or sisters, I contribute to the restoration of God’s justice on this
earth and, with that person, I advance towards the goal of peace. As Saint John XXIII observed,
true peace can be born only from a heart “disarmed” of anxiety and the fear of
war. [21]
13. May 2025 be a year in which peace flourishes! A
true and lasting peace that goes beyond quibbling over the details of
agreements and human compromises. [22] May we seek the true peace that is
granted by God to hearts disarmed: hearts not set on calculating what is mine
and what is yours; hearts that turn selfishness into readiness to reach out to
others; hearts that see themselves as indebted to God and thus prepared to
forgive the debts that oppress others; hearts that replace anxiety about the
future with the hope that every individual can be a resource for the building
of a better world.
14. Disarming hearts is a job for everyone, great
and small, rich and poor alike. At times, something quite simple will do, such
as “a smile, a small gesture of friendship, a kind look, a ready ear, a good
deed”. [23] With such gestures, we progress
towards the goal of peace. We will arrive all the more quickly if, in the
course of journeying alongside our brothers and sisters, we discover that we
have changed from the time we first set out. Peace does not only come with the
end of wars but with the dawn of a new world, a world in which we realize that
we are different, closer and more fraternal than we ever thought possible.
15. Lord, grant us your peace! This is my prayer to
God as I now offer my cordial good wishes for the New Year to the Heads of
State and Government, to the leaders of International Organizations, to the
leaders of the various religions and to every person of good will.
Forgive
us our trespasses, Lord,
as
we forgive those who trespass against us.
In
this cycle of forgiveness, grant us your peace,
the
peace that you alone can give
to
those who let themselves be disarmed in heart,
to
those who choose in hope to forgive the debts of their brothers and sisters,
to
those who are unafraid to confess their debt to you,
and
to those who do not close their ears to the cry of the poor.
From
the Vatican, 8 December 2024
FRANCIS
___________________________
_____________________
[1] Bull
of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 Spes
Non Confundit (9 May 2024), 8.
[2] Cf.
SAINT JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Letter Tertio
Millennio Adveniente (10 November 1994), 51.
[3] Encyclical
Letter Sollicitudo
Rei Socialis (30 December 1987), 36.
[4] Cf. Address
to Participants in the Summit of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and of
Social Sciences, 16 May 2024.
[5] Cf.
Apostolic Exhortation Laudate
Deum (4 October 2023), 70.
[6] Cf.
Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 Spes
Non Confundit (9 May 2024), 16.
[7] Homilia
de avaritia, 7: PG 31, 275.
[8] Cf.
Encyclical Letter Laudato
Si’ (24 May 2015), 123.
[9] Cf. Catechesis,
2 September 2020: L’Osservatore Romano, 3 September 2020, p. 8.
[10] Cf. Address
to Participants in the Meeting “Addressing the Debt Crisis in the Global South” , 5
June 2024.
[11] Cf. Address
to the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change – COP 28, 2 December 2023.
[12] Cf. Address
to Participants in the Meeting “Addressing Debt Crisis in the Global South”,
5 June 2024.
[13] Cf.
Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 Spes
Non Confundit (9 May 2024), 16.
[14] Encyclical
Letter Fratelli
Tutti (3 October 2020), 35.
[15] Cf.
Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 Spes
Non Confundit (9 May 2024), 23.
[16] Oratio X,
100-101: CSCO 638, 115. Saint Augustine could even state that God remains
constantly in our debt: “Since ‘your mercy is everlasting’, you deign by your
promises to become a debtor to all those whose sins you forgive” (cf. Confessions,
5, 9, 17: PL 32, 714).
[17] Apostolic
Letter Tertio
Millennio Adveniente (10 November 1994), 51.
[18] Cf.
Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 Spes
Non Confundit (9 May 2024), 10.
[19] Cf.
SAINT PAUL VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum
Progressio (26 March 1967), 51; BENEDICT XVI, Address to
the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, 9 January 2006;
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum
Caritatis (22 February 2007), 90.
[20] Cf.
Encyclical Letter Fratelli
Tutti (3 October 2020), 262; Address
to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See,
8 January 2024; Address
to the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change – COP 28, 2 December 2023.
[21] Cf.
Encyclical Letter Pacem
in Terris (11 April 1963), Carlen 113.
[22] Cf. Moment
of Prayer on the Tenth Anniversary of the “Invocation for Peace in the Holy
Land”, 7 June 2024.
[23] Bull
of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 Spes
Non Confundit (9 May 2024), 18.
Source: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/peace/documents/20241208-messaggio-58giornatamondiale-pace2025.html