Vatican City, Aug 26, 2016 / 04:27 am
Announced Friday, the theme Pope Francis selected for the 2017 World Day of Peace focuses on nonviolence as a political solution to what he has frequently termed a "piecemeal World War III" being waged throughout the globe.
"Violence and Peace are at the origin of two opposite ways to building society," an Aug. 26 communique from the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace announcing the theme read.
"The proliferation of hotbeds of violence produces most serious negative social consequences…Peace, by contrast, promotes social positive consequences and it allows the achievement of real progress."
Therefore, "we should act within what is possible, and negotiate ways of peace even where they seem tortuous and impractical," the message attached to the theme said.