Sr. Anne Henriette Owino, FSSA
In the world peace day messagereleased Tuesday, December 21, Pope Francis calls for less weaponry in 2022 noting the world has witnessed reduction in funding education and training but has increased military expenditure.
“In recent years, there has been a significant reduction worldwide in funding for education and training; these have been seen more as expenditures than investments. Military expenditures, on the other hand, have increased beyond the levels at the end of the Cold War and they seem certain to grow exorbitantly,” reads an excerpt of the Pope’s message.
In his message published in December 21, Pope Francis talked of three paths of building lasting peace, that is dialogue, education as a factor of freedom and labor as a means for the full realization of human dignity.
“I wish to propose three paths for building a lasting peace. First, dialogue between generations as the basis for the realization of shared projects. Second, education as a factor of freedom, responsibility and development. Finally, labor as a means for the full realization of human dignity. These are three indispensable elements for “making possible the creation of a social covenant,” without which every project of peace turns out to be insubstantial.”
He also encouraged dialogue between the young and the elderly, stressing that it is only through dialogue that the world will learn how to regain mutual trust leading to addressing isolation and self- absorption caused by the pandemic.
Pope Francis observed that when dialogue between the young and the old is well blended and marched, “it could become the driving force behind a healthy politics since the elderly are the keepers of memory and the young move history forward.”
“Great social challenges and peace processes necessarily call for dialogue between the keepers of memory – the elderly – and those who move history forward – the young. Each must be willing to make room for others and not to insist on monopolizing the entire scene by pursuing their own immediate interests, as if there were no past and future,” the Pope said adding that, “The global crisis we are experiencing makes it clear that encounter and dialogue between generations should be the driving force behind a healthy politics”.
He also talked about the need to care for our common home explaining that the environment is “like a loan to each generation which must hand it on to the next,” hence the need to encourage young people to work for a just world with restlessness, enthusiasm and sense of responsibility.
He went on to state that we should see education accompanied by great efforts to promote culture as a way of investing and not expenditure, “By investing in the education and training of younger generations, we can help them – through a focused programme of formation – to take their rightful place in the labour market.”
He further urged government leaders and all those charged with political and social responsibilities that, “they may walk together with courage and creativity on the path of intergenerational dialogue, education and work.”