Pope Francis Releases World Day of Peace Message, Renews Call to End Death Penalty

“The Holy Father speaks about the poor countries. In our time, he says this must include the conversion of hearts,” he shared. “Conversion is a path traced by love for Christ that inspires, transforms, orients, and energizes us.”

“‘Love is patient’ says St. Paul (1 Cor 13:14) because it moves us from immediate needs and consumption and a logic of waste and self interest to seeking authentic communion, service, the common good, the gift of oneself, ‘integral human development,’” he continued.

During the press conference, Italian engineer Vito Alfieri Fontana shared with journalists about his humanitarian work dedicated to eliminating land mines following a personal conversion experience in the early 1990s.

“When I was an arms manufacturer I thought that war was a part of the human soul,” he said. “Those who work in the armaments industry go out of the way to offer customers products that ensure quick and effective solutions to face a war.”

“[Political] tensions kept our activities stable,” he said. “Then somehow a mechanism becomes jammed. The questions from your children asking you what you do as a job and why you do it; pressure from public opinion on the problem of land mines… asked me to think about my life, if not, to change it.”

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Pope Francis Releases World Day of Peace Message, Renews Call to End Death Penalty

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Addressing Pope Francis and St. John Paul II’s call to overturn “structures of sin,” Executive Director of Catholic Mobilizing Network Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy said this year’s theme “Forgive Us Our Trespasses: Grant Us Your Peace” affirms the American organization’s work dedicated to end to the death penalty, advance mercy, and achieve “restorative justice.”

“My friends Vicki and Syl Schieber lost their daughter, Shannon, in 1998,” Murphy told journalists on Thursday. “Their suffering was unimaginable yet they chose to respond in a restorative way. They fought to spare the life of the man who took their daughter’s life from a death sentence.”  

“In the spirit of reconciliation, the Schiebers took courageous steps to ensure their pain did not result in more suffering or feed into a sinful social structure,” she shared. “Forgiveness is a long journey. Dare I say, countercultural.”

“The Holy Father reminds us that the path toward peace needs graced hope to light our way,” she added.

Coinciding with the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, the World Day of Peace was instituted by Pope Paul VI in 1968 and has since been observed “as a hope and as a promise” each year “to give to the history of the world a more happy, ordered, and civilized development.”