The Evangelical Pope | Building A New World

Each week we let Saint Pope John Paul II share meaningful signposts to spark socio-economic resolves through justice and righteousness combined with mercy and compassion; in short, love.

               6 For to us a child is born,
                   To us, a son is given,
                   And the government will be on his shoulders.
               And he will be called
                   Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
                   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

               __ Isaiah 9:6 (New International Version)

Ayacucho, Peru, 3 February 1985 | I wish to approach the pain of the inhabitants of this area, address a word of encouragement and contribute to the desired reconciliation of souls.

If we genuinely want to build a new world, there is no other way than the one shown to us by Jesus, the "prince of peace" (Isaiah 9: 6).

However, it is necessary to go to the root of certain painful situations, which sometimes cause pain after pain in so many innocent victims, aggravating the tragedy.

If injustice and poverty can create a suitable climate for bitterness and hatred to arise, they are not enough by themselves to explain it. They are not their true roots. Hatred and violence are born from man's heart, his passions or aberrant convictions, and sin. The origin of hate is that of evil itself.

Hatred shows that instead of opting for love, man has allowed aggression, resentment, and, consequently, irrationality and death to win in him.

In the struggle between good and evil, love and hate, fought in the human heart, and with greater force in human nature tried by suffering, ideological convictions can have a powerful influence. We have all witnessed how groups of men proposing to react to frustrating social situations, promising ways of liberation, sometimes unleashing conflicts, and violence, which produce only more significant frustrations and pain.

The responsibility of ideologies proclaiming hatred and resentment as the driving force of history is profound, like those who reduce man to economic dimensions contrary to his dignity. Without denying the seriousness of many problems and the injustice of many situations, we cannot fail to proclaim that hatred is never a way: only love, and constructive personal effort, can get to the bottom of the problems.

I now want to address my urgent word to the men who have placed their trust in armed struggle, to those who have allowed themselves to be deceived by false ideologies, to the point of believing that terror and aggression, exacerbating the already lamentable social and by forcing a supreme confrontation, they can lead to a better world.

I want to tell them that evil is never a path toward good! You cannot destroy the life of your brothers; you cannot continue to sow panic among mothers, wives, and children. You can't keep threatening the elderly. Not only are you straying from the path that the loving God shows us with his life, but you are hindering the development of your people.

The ruthless logic of violence leads nowhere! No good is achieved by helping to increase it. If your goal is that of a more just and fraternal Peru, seek the paths of dialogue and not those of violence.

Therefore, in the name of God: Change your path! Convert to the cause of reconciliation and peace! You are still in time! Many tears of innocent victims await your response.

I encourage the members of the Church in Peru to be the first to become instruments of reconciliation, hope, and fully liberating justice.

Dear brothers and sisters, I want to conclude this meeting with an appeal to hope. Don't let the pain that weighs on your lives get you down. Do not forget the human heart's constant capacity for conversion to God. Do not lose hope and resolve to overcome evil with good. Christ accompanies us and has conquered sin! Therefore, do not cease to see your life from the perspective of the redemptive and reconciling cross of Jesus, which points out the eternal goals of our existence.

Catholic children of Huamaga, I bring you the love of our God so that sown in your land may be the resurrection of your hearts.

Excerpted from:

VIAGGIO APOSTOLICO IN VENEZUELA, ECUADOR, PERÙ, TRINIDAD-TOBAGO, APPELLO DI GIOVANNI PAOLO II, AGLI UOMINI DELLA LOTTA ARMATA, Ayacucho (Perù) - Domenica, 3 febbraio 1985

https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/it/speeches/1985/february/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19850203_lotta-armata.html