Vatican City, May 24, 2018 / 04:29 am
Speaking about St. Pope John XXIII's encyclical on establishing universal peace, Pacem in terris, Pope Francis said that even 55 years after its publication, the document still stands as "a permanent commitment" to peace.
Even if the way war is carried out has changed since the time when the encyclical was written, and today there appears to be more violence and conflict than in the past, St. John XXIII's reflections "remain valid," he said.
In an interview published May 24 in "L'Eco di Bergamo," a newspaper of the northern Italian town of Bergamo, Francis said he is concerned about the ways violence occurs, not only with weapons, but with "mechanisms of oppression."
Imbalances linked to the "reckless exploitation of men and of the resources of nature" are a cause for concern today, he continued, underlining that peace cannot only "be linked to the absence of war," but must involve the "integral development of people and populations."