No peace without justice, says pope
Agencies, Vatican City
Reflecting on the year just ended and the coming of the new one, Pope John Paul II in his address celebrating the World Day of Peace on Monday said there would be no peace on earth without justice and no justice without forgiveness.
"The pillars of true peace are justice and that form of love is forgiveness," the pontiff said, noting that although forgiveness is not a proposal that can be immediately understood or accepted because it involves an apparent shot-term loss, it nevertheless has a real long-term gain.
Touching on the troubled international situation and growing violence in 2001, including the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United Sates that killed thousands of people of many ethnic backgrounds, the pontiff said when terrorist organizations used their own followers as weapons against defenseless people, the people had the right to defend themselves against terrorism, because terrorism "is a true crime against humanity".
"Terrorism exploits not just people, it exploits God: it ends by making him an idol to be used for one's own purposes," the pope added, pointing out that "no religious leader can condone terrorism and much less preach it".
The pope also urged all people in the Middle East to work for a new era and to resolve their problems peacefully and constructively through interreligious understanding and cooperation.
"I am convinced that Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious leaders must now take the lead in publicly condemning terrorism and denying terrorism any form of religious or moral legitimacy.
"No peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness: this is what in this message I wish to say to believers and unbelievers alike, to all men and women of goodwill who are concerned for the good of the human family and for its future."
On his last Sunday service of 2001 in Rome's Saint Peter's Square, the pope wished for a peaceful new year. In front of the thousands of people who had gathered to listen, the head of the Roman Catholic Church called on people to "put all enmities behind them" and to "begin 2002 with love and the peace of Christ".
The pontiff stressed "family and marriage values" and cited Jesus Christ and his parents, Mary and Joseph, as a "model of understanding and respect, hope and sacrifice, work and solidarity", during the Catholic Church's Holy Family Day, celebrated on Dec. 30.
On Monday the pope also prayed for the strength to continue in his papacy, which has seen a once robust, tireless pontiff lose energy and struggle with health problems.
"I ask God for the strength to carry on, until He wants me to, in faithful service to the Church of Rome and to the entire world," John Paul said in his traditional New Year's Eve homily, sparking applause and nods of approval from the congregation in St. Peter's Basilica.
The pope led a New Year's Eve service of thanksgiving. Except for 1999 and 2000, when huge crowds flocked to the Vatican for Holy Year, the pontiff had traditionally led the year-end ceremony in a much smaller church in downtown Rome, and not the basilica. With Holy Year crowds long gone, the choice of the basilica for this year seemed linked to the pontiff's physical frailty.
Using the basilica meant the pope was close to his residence. And the church's cavernous space and wide center aisle lent itself to the use of the moving platform which the pontiff uses to navigate distances, sparing him an uncomfortable walk.
For several years now, John Paul has had to cope with a chronic hand tremor and a shuffling step, symptoms of Parkinson's disease. While early days of his 23-year-old papacy saw him breeze through as many as a dozen speeches some days, he now often tires easily. Christmas Day saw him slump back in his chair on the balcony of the basilica after giving a speech and reading holiday greetings in 60 languages.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls issued a tersely worded statement saying the pope had given no such indications of hastily setting a day for a canonization ceremony soon.
As if to counter talk that the pope is running out of steam, the Vatican's press office on Monday issued a fact-sheet summing up the pontiff's year in statistics. It said the pope held 43 general audiences and presided over lots of other ceremonies, attracting more than 2.5 million people overall.
Despite his difficulty in moving around, the pope kept up with his foreign travels in 2001, with his pilgrimages taking him as far as Kazakstan in Asia, as well as to largely Orthodox Greece and to Syria in the Middle East. Next year, the pope has said, will see him lead a youth jamboree in Canada. Other trips in the works include one to Bulgaria.