THE
P RTAL
January 2019
Page 9
Catholic Social Teaching
World Peace Day
Thoughts on World Peace Day from Fr Ashley Beck
W e are
celebrating the season of Christmas, and one of the great theological themes is peace. This is
because of what the angels sang to the shepherds in Luke’s account of the birth of Our Lord; also one
of the prophetic titles we apply to the Lord, to the Messiah, is Prince of Peace. This series of articles is about
Catholic Social teaching, and peace is one of the areas of human life which we address through its insights.
A few months ago St Paul VI was canonised by
the present Holy Father - Paul, of course, noted for
his warm and welcoming approach to Anglicans.
Just over fifty years ago, at the beginning of 1968, he
initiated for Catholics an annual World Peace Day, a
special Day of Prayer for peace in the world. 1 January,
the Octave day of Christmas, is now kept in our
calendars as the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God;
it also commemorates Our Lord’s circumcision after
his birth, which was formerly the main focus of the
feast. The pope made this great feast day World Peace
day each year, drawing on the theme of peace in our
celebration of Christmas.
In this country New Year’s Day has never been
marked as a big religious celebration, although it is
good to begin the new civil year by coming to Mass
(and Midnight Masses for New Year are becoming
increasingly popular), so here we actually transfer the
observance to a Sunday later in January (this year 20 th ).
Our Catholic Peace organisation Pax Christi (www.
paxchristi.org.uk) produces excellent material each
year, and some parishes have a second collection to
support the organisation’s work. Sadly many parishes
can’t be bothered to observe it at all; perhaps this is
because what we teach as Catholics about peace
challenges others in society and sets us at odds with
other people, and often we don’t like to be different.
Each year the Pope produces a special message for
World Peace Day. These are readily accessible from
www.vatican.va and over the years the messages have
been an important part of papal teaching – sometimes
their importance has been overlooked. For example,
Pope Benedict XVI’s first World Peace Day message
at the beginning of 2006, made it clear that nuclear
deterrent policies are not acceptable in terms of
Catholic teaching:
‘What can be said, too, about those governments
which count on nuclear arms as a means of ensuring
the security of their countries? Along with countless
persons of good will, one can state that this point
of view is not only baneful but also completely
fallacious. In a nuclear war there would be no victors,
only victims. The truth of peace requires that all —
whether those governments which openly or secretly
possess nuclear arms, or those planning to acquire
them— agree to change their course by clear and firm
decisions, and strive for a progressive and concerted
nuclear disarmament.’
In other words, the policies are a pack of lies. A
message of peace for the world – but not a comforting
one for the leadership of countries like the UK, the
United States or Russia. Perhaps because of this the
message got very little publicity at the time, and even
now lots of people don’t know about it. The pope’s
message not only helps us understand Catholic
teaching about peace; it helps us understand more
about Benedict XVI. World Peace Day is important.
A Happy New Year to you all.