Return to Resources

Peace Encyclicals & messages

On this page you will find

  • Extracts of messages from Pope Francis on war and peace
  • Peace Encyclicals
  • World Peace Day Messages
  • Holy See Statements on Nuclear Weapons and the Arms Trade

 Extracts from peace messages of Pope Francis since 2013

Peace Encyclicals 

Peace Day Messages

  • Full text of 2019 World Peace Day Message (Pope Francis)
  • Full text of 2018 World Peace Day message (Pope Francis)
  • Full text 2017  of World Peace Day Message (Pope Francis)
  • Full text of 2015 World Peace Day Message ( Pope Francis)
  • Full text of 2014 World Peace Day Message (Pope Francis)
  • Full text of messages from  2013 – 2006 (Pope Benedict XVI)
  • Full text of messages from 2005 – 1979 (Pope John Paul II)
  • Full text messages from 1978-1968 (Pope Paul VI)

Speeches and texts on nuclear weapons/deterrence 

“The world is not safer with nuclear weapons; it is more dangerous,” Archbishop Gallagher said.  “A policy that relies on the possession of nuclear weapons,” he said, “is contradictory to the spirit and purpose of the United Nations because nuclear weapons cannot create for us a stable and secure world, and because peace and international stability cannot be founded on mutually assured destruction or on the threat of total annihilation.”

The Holy See has signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and has already deposited its ratification, because it believes that it is an important contribution in the overall effort toward complete nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, an advance toward the fulfilment of the commitment of the States Parties to the NPT “to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament,” and a step toward negotiating a “general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.”[24]

Environmental, humanitarian consequences

  • H.E. Archbishop Bernardito Auza Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, Statement to NPT  meeting, April 2015

The very possession of nuclear weapons will continue to come at an enormous financial cost… Pope Francis put it strongly in his message to the President of the Vienna Conference on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons: “Spending on nuclear weapons squanders the wealth of nations. To prioritize such spending is a mistake and a misallocation of resources which would be far better invested in the areas of integral human development, education, health and the fight against extreme poverty. When these resources are squandered, the poor and the weak living on the margins of society pay the price.”

  • Pope Francis  message to the Vienna Conference on Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, December 2014

” Nuclear deterrence and the threat of mutually  assured destruction cannot be the basis for an ethics of fraternity and peaceful coexistence among peoples and states.  The youth of today and tomorrow deserve far more…Spending on nuclear weapons squanders the wealth of nations.

Facebooktwitter

Permanent link to this article: https://paxchristi.org.uk/resources/previous-world-peace-day-themes/