Pope Francis: Peace is everyone’s
responsibility
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| Pope meets with the Citadel of Peace Association.(Vatican Media) |
Pope Francis meets with the Citadel of Peace Association,
praising their work in the field of conflict resolution and supporting their
Appeal to the UN.
The Citadel of Peace Association was founded 20 years ago by
Franco Vaccari who had an interest in conflict resolution. Mr Vaccari took the
formerly abandoned Italian village of Rondine in Tuscany and turned it into a
centre for conflict resolution which was nominated in 2015 for the Nobel Peace
Prize. Over the years, young people from areas of conflict around the world
have come to the village and the centre in a bid to promote understanding and
peace. Those who are welcomed at the centre for a course of study come from
countries such as; Israel and the Palestinian Authority; Serbia and Bosnia;
Armenia and Azerbaijan; Russia and Chechnya.
Transforming conflicts and Peace Building
Greeting the 350 members of the Association in the Vatican
on Monday, on the occasion of its 20th anniversary, Pope Francis told those
gathered that in these twenty years they had “developed a method capable of
transforming conflicts, bringing young people out of this deception and sending
them back to their peoples for full spiritual, moral, cultural and civil
development: generous young people who, blameless, were born with the burden of
the failures of previous generations.”
By choosing to dedicate yourselves to young people, the Pope
said, “you are also committed to fighting poverty and building peace, as a work
of justice and love. An action that nourishes hope and places trust in man,
especially in young people.”
Peace Appeal
The Pontiff went on to discuss an appeal the Citadel of
Peace Association has written and which will be presented to the UN on 10
December, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.
Pope Francis said that, “listening to a young Palestinian
and a young Israeli together asking the governments of the world to take a step
that can reopen the future, transferring the cost of a weapon from the budget
of defense to the budget of education to form a peace leader, is a rare and
beautiful thing!... I feel I must give you all my support, my sympathy, my
blessing.”
“Your Appeal”, the Pope continued, “contains and proposes a concrete vision”, adding that he supported it and asked Heads of State and Government to do likewise.
“Your Appeal”, the Pope continued, “contains and proposes a concrete vision”, adding that he supported it and asked Heads of State and Government to do likewise.
The role of Peace Leaders
Peace leaders, the Pope underlined, “are not those
politicians who do not know how to dialogue and confront each other: a leader
who does not strive to meet the ‘enemy’, to sit with him at the table as you
do, cannot lead his people towards peace. To do this we need humility and not
arrogance.” Peace, Pope Francis concluded, “is everyone’s responsibility.”
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