Vatican City, Dec 3, 2018 / 11:13 am
In a speech on Monday, Pope Francis called for humility as a path to world peace, urging world leaders and citizens of every nation to work for an end to violence and a greater respect for human dignity.
"There is a need for leaders with a new mentality," the pope said. "Those who do not know how to dialogue and exchange with each other are not leaders of peace: a leader who does not try to meet the 'enemy', to sit with him at the table as you do, cannot lead his people to peace. To do this we need humility, not arrogance."
The pope's words came in a Dec. 3 address to members of the Citadel of Peace Association, on the 20th anniversary of its founding. The organization, established by Franco Vaccari, has transformed the abandoned Tuscan town of Rondine into a center for study of conflict resolution, earning a nomination for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. Young people from areas of conflict in the world come to the center to study.
"Your educational commitment is to host young people who, in various parts of the world, live stranded in cultures poisoned by pain and hatred, and to offer them a bold challenge: to verify in person whether the other, he or she who is beyond a closed boundary, of barbed wires or impassable walls, is really what everyone claims: an enemy," Pope Francis told members of the association.