MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE 51st WORLD DAY OF PEACE
1 JANUARY 2018
Migrants and refugees:
men and women in search of peace
1. Heartfelt good wishes for peace
Peace to all people and to all nations on earth! Peace, which the angels proclaimed to the shepherds on Christmas night,[1] is
a profound aspiration for everyone, for each individual and all
peoples, and especially for those who most keenly suffer its absence.
Among these whom I constantly keep in my thoughts and prayers, I would
once again mention the over 250 million migrants worldwide, of whom 22.5
million are refugees. Pope Benedict XVI,
my beloved predecessor, spoke of them as “men and women, children,
young and elderly people, who are searching for somewhere to live in
peace.”[2] In
order to find that peace, they are willing to risk their lives on a
journey that is often long and perilous, to endure hardships and
suffering, and to encounter fences and walls built to keep them far from
their goal.
In a spirit of compassion, let us embrace all those fleeing from
war and hunger, or forced by discrimination, persecution, poverty and
environmental degradation to leave their homelands.
We know that it is not enough to open our hearts to the suffering of
others. Much more remains to be done before our brothers and sisters can
once again live peacefully in a safe home. Welcoming others requires
concrete commitment, a network of assistance and goodwill, vigilant and
sympathetic attention, the responsible management of new and complex
situations that at times compound numerous existing problems, to say
nothing of resources, which are always limited. By practising the virtue
of prudence, government leaders should take practical measures to
welcome, promote, protect, integrate and, “within the limits allowed by a
correct understanding of the common good, to permit [them] to become
part of a new society.”[3] Leaders
have a clear responsibility towards their own communities, whose
legitimate rights and harmonious development they must ensure, lest they
become like the rash builder who miscalculated and failed to complete
the tower he had begun to construct.[4]
2. Why so many refugees and migrants? .......
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