Pope Calls for End to Terrorism, Even in a Just Cause

Pope John Paul II issued a wide-ranging plea for peace Thursday, begging terrorists to abandon violence even when their cause is just and urging “a new solidarity” among nations to uphold human dignity and erase economic injustices.

In his annual New Year’s Day message, released Thursday, the pontiff highlighted terrorism as an evil “which in this past year brought so much suffering and havoc to society.” The 20-page peace plea was sent by the Vatican to heads of government and religious and institutional leaders around the world.

The Roman Catholic Church has marked New Year’s Day as World Day of Peace since 1967.

‘Violent Pursuit’

“Dare I hope to be heard by those who practice violence and terrorism?” the Pope asked. “Those of you who will at least listen to my voice, I beg you again, as I have in the past, to turn away from the violent pursuit of your goals, even if the goals themselves are just.

“I beg you to turn away from killing and harming the innocent. I beg you to stop undermining the very fabric of society. The way of violence cannot obtain true justice for you or for anyone else. If you want you can still change.”

The message, titled “Development and Solidarity: Two Keys to Peace,” also urged greater efforts for world disarmament and denounced the closing of borders as an affront to “the fundamental equality and dignity of the human person.”

Although he did not single out any one nation, the closed borders remarks, coupled with a denunciation of “ideologies that preach hatred or distrust, systems that set up artificial barriers,” appeared to be aimed at the Soviet Union. He said that arbitrarily closing borders prevents people from being able “to move and to better their lot, to be reunited with their loved ones, or simply to visit their family or reach out in care and understanding to others.”

‘Abortion Schemes’

In another part of the message John Paul inveighed against international development programs that “virtually force communities or countries to accept contraception programs and abortion schemes” as the price of economic aid.

“One has to say clearly and forcefully that these offers violate the solidarity of the human family because they deny the values of human dignity and human freedom,” the Pope said.

Deploring the growing gap between the “technological haves and have-nots,” the pontiff urged a new look “with new eyes” at the Third World debt problem. He said that developing countries should not be used as “the testing area for doubtful experiments or a dumping ground for questionable products” and urged a greater sharing of technological developments.

Another threat to peace, the Pope said, is the breakdown of the family. “Today, we see the frightening specter of young children who are abandoned or forced into the marketplace,” he said. John Paul warned that family disintegration encourages drug and alcohol abuse, “transient and meaningless sexual relations and exploitation by others.”

Among other obstacles to the kind of “human solidarity” that could move the world toward peace, the Pope listed racial hatred, religious intolerance and class divisions.

In his call for greater efforts toward disarmament, the pontiff said that “all states have responsibility for world peace, and this peace cannot be ensured until a security based on arms is gradually replaced with a security based on the solidarity of the human family.”