VATICAN (CNS): Pope Francis has called on all nations to eliminate the death penalty, to divert a fixed percentage of arms spending to a global fund to fight hunger and climate change, and to cancel the international debt of developing nations as concrete ways to usher in a new era of hope.
“Sporadic acts of philanthropy are not enough. Cultural and structural changes are necessary, so that enduring change may come about,” the pope said in his message for World Peace Day 2025 which is marked on January 1.
The message, “Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace,” was released a Vatican news conference on December 12.
Pope Francis meets with academic experts, policymakers, officials from multilateral institutions and religious leaders meeting with the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences to discuss the foreign debt crisis on June 5, at the Vatican. Photo: CNS /Vatican Media
Offering his “cordial good wishes for the New Year to the heads of state and government, to the leaders of international organisations, to the leaders of the various religions and to every person of goodwill,” the pope made three proposals for bringing about “much-needed changes” during the Jubilee Year, which focuses on “Pilgrims of Hope.”
The proposals, he wrote, are “capable of restoring dignity to the lives of entire peoples and enabling them to set out anew on the journey of hope.”
Sporadic acts of philanthropy are not enough. Cultural and structural changes are necessary, so that enduring change may come about
The first proposal, he wrote, is renewing the appeal launched by Pope St. John Paul II for the Holy Year 2000 to consider “reducing substantially, if not canceling outright, the international debt which seriously threatens the future of many nations.”
Foreign debt, Pope Francis wrote, “has become a means of control whereby certain governments and private financial institutions of the richer countries unscrupulously and indiscriminately exploit the human and natural resources of poorer countries, simply to satisfy the demands of their own markets.”
Pope Francis also said wealthier nations must recognise their own “ecological debt” to the global south due to the exploitation of resources, the destruction of ecosystems and the effects of climate change. “The more prosperous countries ought to feel called to do everything possible to forgive the debts of those countries that are in no condition to repay the amount they owe.”
The pope said, “A new financial framework must be devised, leading to the creation of a global financial charter based on solidarity and harmony between peoples,” he wrote, so that debt forgiveness is not just “an isolated act of charity that simply reboots the vicious cycle of financing and indebtedness.”
His second proposal is for “a firm commitment” to respecting “the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person can cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to a future of prosperity and happiness for themselves and for their children.”
[Foreign debt] has become a means of control whereby certain governments and private financial institutions of the richer countries unscrupulously and indiscriminately exploit the human and natural resources of poorer countries, simply to satisfy the demands of their own markets
The pope wrote, “Without hope for the future, it becomes hard for the young to look forward to bringing new lives into the world,” and a “concrete gesture that can help foster the culture of life” is the elimination of the death penalty in all nations.
The death penalty “not only compromises the inviolability of life but eliminates every human hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation,” he wrote.
Pope Francis third appeal follows “in the footsteps of St. Paul VI and Benedict XVI,” he wrote. “In this time marked by wars, let us use at least a fixed percentage of the money earmarked for armaments to establish a global fund.”
The fund should finance initiatives “to eradicate hunger” and facilitate educational activities in poor countries to promote sustainable development and combat climate change, he wrote. “We need to work at eliminating every pretext that encourages young people to regard their future as hopeless or dominated by the thirst to avenge the blood of their dear ones.”
Without hope for the future, it becomes hard for the young to look forward to bringing new lives into the world,
Michael Cardinal Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told reporters that Caritas Internationalis was launching a global campaign called “’Turn debt into hope’ with a global petition aimed at raising awareness about the systemic change needed.”
The Jubilee Year and the Christian call for conversion are invitations, not “to a moralistic effort at self-improvement, but to a radical change in how we look at reality,” he said.
“Conversion is a path traced by that love for Christ that inspires, transforms, orients, energises us,” the cardinal said. Faith in the merciful and providential hands of God “frees our hearts from anguish, to respond and to serve.”
Pope Francis said in his message that the jubilee tradition is meant to remind all people, “rich and poor alike, that no one comes into this world doomed to oppression: all of us are brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the same Father, born to live in freedom, in accordance with the Lord’s will.”
Christians “feel bound to cry out and denounce the many situations in which the earth is exploited and our neighbors oppressed,” he wrote.
Calling for and implementing concrete solutions to systemic injustice is part of the Christian desire to “break the bonds of injustice and to proclaim God’s justice,” he added.
The full text of the pope World Day of Peace message can be found at: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/peace/documents/20241208-messaggio-58giornatamondiale-pace2025.html
