Reflections on Pope Francis’ 2025 World Day of Peace message

By Tony Magliano – In these early days of the new year, many of us are probably feeling a mixture of anxiety and hope – anxious about the many crises in our nation and world, yet hopeful that 2025 will be better.

In his Jan 1, 2025, World Day of Peace message titled “Forgive Us Our Trespasses: Grant Us Your Peace” Pope Francis appears to have similar feelings. But for him hope, especially hope in God that is expressed in concrete action, is the elixir to anxiety.

Reflecting on this Jubilee Year of Grace, the Holy Father writes, “We wish to hear the ‘desperate plea for help’ that, like the cry of the blood of Abel (cf. Gen 4:10), rises up from so many parts of our world – a plea that God never fails to hear. We for our part feel bound to cry out and denounce the many situations in which the earth is exploited and our neighbours oppressed. These injustices can appear at times in the form of what Saint John Paul II called “structures of sin”, that arise not only from injustice on the part of some but are also consolidated and maintained by a network of complicity.

“I think, in particular, of all manner of disparities, the inhuman treatment meted out to migrants, environmental decay, the confusion willfully created by disinformation, the refusal to engage in any form of dialogue and the immense resources spent on the industry of war. All these, taken together, represent a threat to the existence of humanity as a whole. At the beginning of this year, then, we desire to heed the plea of suffering humankind in order to feel called, together and as individuals, to break the bonds of injustice and to proclaim God’s justice. Sporadic acts of philanthropy are not enough. Cultural and structural changes are necessary, so that enduring change may come about”[emphasis added].

One of the many cultural and structural realities that morally demands our attention and action is the hellish military-industrial complex’s determination to fuel the world’s many violent conflicts with weapons for sake of monetary profit  https://winwithoutwar.org/take-action). 

Trying to also raise our consciousness on other life and death issues Pope Francis writes, “Foreign debt and ecological debt are two sides of the same coin, namely the mindset of exploitation that has culminated in the debt crisis. In the spirit of this Jubilee Year, I urge the international community to work towards forgiving foreign debt in recognition of the ecological debt existing between the North and the South of this world. This is an appeal for solidarity, but above all for justice” (see: https://turndebtintohope.caritas.org/.

The Holy Father adds, “I also ask for a firm commitment to respect for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person can cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to a future of prosperity and happiness for themselves and for their children. Without hope for the future, it becomes hard for the young to look forward to bringing new lives into the world. Here I would like once more to propose a concrete gesture that can help foster the culture of life, namely the elimination of the death penalty in all nations. This penalty not only compromises the inviolability of life but eliminates every human hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation.

“May 2025 be a year in which peace flourishes! A true and lasting peace that goes beyond quibbling over the details of agreements and human compromises. May we seek the true peace that is granted by God to hearts disarmed: hearts not set on calculating what is mine and what is yours; hearts that turn selfishness into readiness to reach out to others; hearts that see themselves as indebted to God and thus prepared to forgive the debts that oppress others; hearts that replace anxiety about the future with the hope that every individual can be a resource for the building of a better world” (see: https://www.loyolapress.com/retreats/start/3minuteretreat-proclaim-peace/).

Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at .