Ignored Messages Carry the Hope of the World
This year, Pope Benedict’s World Day of Peace message links peace to all of Creation, reminding us of the urgency of charity. This news, this call to each person's freedom, offers answers to the recent tragedies in Haiti and elsewhere.

by Lorenzo Albacete

By the time you read this column, the world-wide attention being given to the impact of the January 12th earthquake in Haiti will probably have decreased considerably, and other news and issues will have taken its place. I decided to devote the column to Pope Benedict XVI’s message for this year’s World Day of Peace devoted to respect for creation because other news (like the terrorist attempt of Christmas day) and heated debates (health care, the Tea Party phenomenon, etc.) prevented it from receiving the kind of attention that it deserved, especially from Catholics who insist–correctly–on the importance of the Holy Father’s Magisterium, but somehow–incorrectly–think that we can pick and choose what we like from his teachings on social justice. I have been thinking about the conservativism of the Tea Party phenomenon from the perspective of the social doctrine of the Church, comparing it to the views of “liberal Catholics,” as shown by the reaction to this World Day of Peace message. I have added this reference to the reaction to the earthquake because I believe that it too should be judged from the perspective of Pope Benedict’s message.

Not many pay much attention to these World Day of Peace messages anyway (except diocesan social justice offices) precisely because their teachings appear obvious (let’s all be good), or so balanced that they really offer no concrete and interesting judgments on the conflicts that plague the world, and thus you can think what you think about these issues, if you think about them at all.

This, however, is a careless way of responding to these World Day of Peace messages. Since the proclamation of January 1st as World Day of Peace by Pope Paul VI, the contents of these messages have been far from obvious. In fact, they have been good examples of how the social doctrine of the Church is an expression of faith in Christ, which in turn gives birth to hope and reveals the mystery of God as charity, the force that moves us to make this world more human. It is for this reason that Pope Benedict has explicitly inserted, so to speak, the social doctrine of the Church within the revelation of God as charity in his encyclicals Deus Caritas Est and Caritas in Veritate.

In fact, this year’s message, “If you want to cultivate peace, protect Creation,” in its very title, reveals the link between social doctrine and faith in Christ: peace (social doctrine) is linked to Creation  (a Mystery grasped by faith which resonates in the human heart’s desire for the peace for which it was created).