Sends Message for End of Ramadan

VATICAN CITY, AUG. 3, 2012 (Zenit.org).- In a message for the end of Ramadan, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue says that educating young people for peace is increasingly urgent. The message was released by the Vatican today.

Justice and peace, the statement noted, are inseparable from truth and freedom.

"If the task of education is entrusted to the whole of society, as you know, it is first and foremost, and in a particular way, the work of parents and, with them, of families, schools and universities, not forgetting about those responsible for religious, cultural, social, and economic life, and the world of communication," the message said. "It is an enterprise which is both beautiful and difficult: to help children and young people to discover and to develop the resources with which the Creator has endowed them with and to build responsible human relationships."

Citing a message from the Pope, the council president and secretary, the signatories of the message, noted that authentic witnesses are needed today. Yet, they added, "let us also remember that the young themselves are responsible as well for their own education and for their formation for justice and peace."
 

Justice

The council statement considered the nature of justice, saying that it is "determined first of all by the identity of the human person, considered in his or her entirety; it cannot be reduced to its commutative and distributive dimension. We must not forget that the common good cannot be achieved without solidarity and fraternal love! For believers, genuine justice, lived in the friendship with God, deepens all other relationships: with oneself, with others and with the whole of creation."

Moreover, believers recognize that justice "has its origin in the fact that all men are created by God and are called to become one, single family."
The message then considered the nature of peace: "not limited to the mere absence of war, or to a balance between opposing forces, but is at one and the same time a gift from God and a human endeavour to be pursued without ceasing. It is a fruit of justice and an effect of charity."

The Vatican thus called young Muslims and Christians to "cultivate truth and freedom, in order to be genuine heralds of justice and peace and builders of a culture which respects the dignity and the rights of every citizen."