January, 2006
Catholic Spirit - January, 2006
Human rights must be respected, pope says
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
Even in the midst of war, basic human rights must be respected and all parties involved must work to end hostilities, Pope Benedict XVI said in his message for World Peace Day 2006.
International humanitarian law is “binding on all peoples” even in times of war, he said in his message for the Jan. 1 day of prayer.
Pope Benedict’s message, “In Truth, Peace,” was released Dec. 13 at the Vatican.
The pope began his message, which is distributed to heads of state around the world, by offering his best wishes to all people of good will, “especially those who are suffering as a result of violence and armed conflict.”
“My greeting is one filled with hope for a more serene world, a world in which more and more individuals and communities are committed to the paths of justice and peace,” Pope Benedict wrote.
The message focused on truth as the foundation for peace — the truth that all people are created in the image and likeness of God with equal dignity, that God has a plan for humanity, and that good and evil exist and can be recognized by all people.
Pope Benedict quoted the Second Vatican Council, which said, “Not everything automatically becomes permissible between hostile parties once war has regrettably commenced.”
The body of international humanitarian law was developed to limit the devastating consequences of war, and its precepts are binding on all nations, the pope said.
In fact, humanitarian law must be brought up to date to respond to “the changing scenarios of today’s armed conflicts and the use of ever newer and more sophisticated weapons,” he said.
Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, presented the pope’s message at a Dec. 13 Vatican press conference.
He said the Catholic Church absolutely condemns the use of torture in all circumstances, including interrogations aimed at preventing further violence.
“Torture is a humiliation of the human person” and there is no excuse for using it, he said. Other methods exist for gaining information, assessing threats and stopping potential terrorists.
Asked specifically if Pope Benedict was condemning the United States for its prisons at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and allegedly in Eastern Europe for suspected terrorists, Cardinal Martino said the pope “is not condemning anybody, but is inviting them to follow the Geneva Conventions. All those states that are parties to the convention have an obligation to observe it.”
The pope thanked international organizations committed to negotiations and peacemaking, but also “the many soldiers engaged in the delicate work of resolving conflicts and restoring the necessary conditions for peace.”
Peace is the result of “an order planned and willed by God,” he said. It is a gift that must be sought through prayer, but also through a commitment to justice.
Falsehood is the enemy of peace, he said.
Nazism and communism demonstrated that ideological and political systems can twist the truth, bringing about “the exploitation and murder of an appalling number of men and women, wiping out entire families and communities,” the German-born pope wrote.
“After experiences like these, how can we fail to be seriously concerned about lies in our own time, lies which are the framework for menacing scenarios of death in many parts of the world,” he said.
Truth is attacked both by those who deny it exists and by those who think they can impose their conception of truth on others, Pope Benedict said.
“The nihilist denies the very existence of truth, while the fundamentalist claims to be able to impose it by force,” he said. “Both show a dangerous contempt for human beings and human life and ultimately for God himself.”
“Fanatical fundamentalism,” the pope said, does not contribute to spreading the truth about God, but “disfigures his loving and merciful countenance, replacing him with idols made in its own image.”
Pope Benedict said, “God is love which saves, a loving father who wants to see his children look upon one another as brothers and sisters, working responsibly to place their various talents at the service of the common good of the human family.”
In the message, released three days after Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Pope Benedict also pleaded for a renewed international effort for nuclear disarmament.
“The truth of peace requires that all — whether those governments which openly or secretly possess nuclear arms or those planning to acquire them — agree to change their course by clear and firm decisions and strive for a progressive and concerted nuclear disarmament,” he said.
Pope Benedict decried the increasing amount of money governments spend on their military and on armaments while the process “for disarmament is bogged down in indifference.”
Cardinal Martino told reporters, “In 2004 the military spending of nations surpassed the sum of $1 trillion, about $160 for every inhabitant on the planet.”
Addressing Catholics specifically, Pope Benedict said, “When we hear the Gospel, dear brothers and sisters, we learn to build peace on the truth of a daily life inspired by the commandment of love.”
“If peace is to be authentic and lasting,” he said, “it must be built on the bedrock of the truth about God and the truth about man.”