The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the Vatican Covid-19 Commission launched an initiative on March 22 titled, “Advancing Integral Disarmament in Times of Pandemic."
This initiative firmly complies with His Holiness Pope Francis' repeated demand for the attainment of a global ceasefire implying the need to stop weapons production and its proliferation. It aims to “offer the international community and religious leaders concrete options to follow the path of integral disarmament, in response to the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti.”
Pope Francis has all the time been supporting global peace. He reacted to a July 1, 2021 United Nations Security Council unanimously-adopted a resolution demanding a general and immediate cessation of hostilities in all situations. He said, “The call for a global and immediate ceasefire, which would allow the peace and security essential for providing the humanitarian assistance so urgently needed, is commendable."
Since the start of Pope Francis’ pontificate, the Pope has been visiting one country after the other and calling for the attainment of fraternal relations among peoples, combating poverty, as well as the restoring peace among world countries and the various components of societies.
During his March 5-8 visit to Iraq, he called for an end to extremism and violence in addresses in a country long-scarred by war, he said: "Let us silence the cries of death, no more wars… May the weapons be silenced … May there be an end to acts of violence and extremism.”
He also said, “Fraternity is more durable than fratricide, hope is more powerful than hatred, peace more powerful than war."
During his earlier visit to the two Japanese cities razed by atomic bombs during World War II, namely Nagasaki and Hiroshima. In these two cities he called for a “world without nuclear weapons.” The Pope said, “In a world where millions of children and families live in inhumane conditions, the money that is squandered and the fortunes made through the manufacture, upgrading, maintenance and sale of evermore destructive weapons are an affront crying out to heaven.”
Over the past years world countries have had galloping disasters caused by futile wars which led to unemployment, poverty, hunger, and hardships. Had the money waster on wars been invested in useful industrial and agricultural projects then the world would proceed on the road of progress and prosperity.
The attainment of global peace needs radical social changes related to entrenching social equality, promoting justice, and striving to solve social ills through introducing projects that highly values God-created humans and introduce badly-needed reforms.
What is next? This is the question that needs to be answered. It is hoped that the world weapons manufacturing countries would help restore global peace, silence guns, and ensure a world characterized by stability and security. It is also hoped that Popes' earnest call for peace and the Vatican's call for promoting global ceasefire will not fall on deaf ears but rather sow the germinating seeds of cordiality, fraternity and common living.
