Vatican City, Dec 16, 2011 / 12:16 pm
Pope Benedict XVI believes the various crises that afflicted society in 2011 can be met with hope in the coming year if parents introduce young people to Jesus and teach them Christian values.
“It is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living God, our Creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is really good and true,” the Pope says in his message for the 45th World Day of Peace, which will be observed Jan. 1, 2012.
“And what could ever save us apart from love? Love takes delight in truth, it is the force that enables us to make a commitment to truth, to justice, to peace, because it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things,” he writes.
The World Day of Peace is marked by the Church each year on Jan. 1, the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. It was first introduced in 1967, inspired by Pope John XXIII’s encyclical “Pacem in Terris” (Peace on Earth), which was published in 1963.