Pope Appeals for Peace, Justice in 1989 : In New Year’s Day Prayer, He Urges Commitment to Combat Evil

Pope John Paul II on Sunday urged Christians and “all men of good will” to commit themselves to building peace and justice in the New Year.

The Pope, observing the Roman Catholic Church’s traditional “World Day of Peace,” spoke from his Vatican apartment to 30,000 pilgrims and tourists massed in brilliant sunshine in St. Peter’s Square for the noon Angelus prayer traditionally held on New Year’s Day.

Before the prayer, John Paul celebrated High Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, where he repeated his dedication to the rights of racial minorities in 1989 and the duty of governments to protect them.

“The New Year that begins today is under the sign of the maternity of Maria, queen of peace, almost to signify a new hope, a renewed purpose,” John Paul said in his address broadcast throughout the world by Vatican Radio.

“If the forces of evil and hate insist in their destructive activity, we, the disciples of the Lord and of Mary, will insist still more, together with all men of good will, in the commitment to the building of peace and justice,” the Pope said.

At the High Mass, attended by some 10,000 pilgrims and diplomats accredited to the Holy See, John Paul prayed that “the face of the Lord” will rest upon the world in the coming year.

“We express the wish that it may be the year of peace, of justice and of growing solidarity, of social solicitude for each person and for everybody,” the Pope said. “May peace, justice and solidarity grow in men and society.

“May they grow and mature in human consciences, as also in the daily toil of conscience and willingness,” he said.

The Pope recalled that the Second Vatican Council, held in the 1960s, declared that “in all the nations of the Earth there exists a single people of God.”

“Precisely because of this, on this day the church thinks of all men of the entire planet, of all nations, in which each person finds his own human roots and his own identity,” he said.

Rights of Racial Minorities

John Paul quoted excerpts from his message for World Peace Day, published by the Vatican on Dec. 9 and dedicated this year to the rights of racial minorities and the duty of all states to protect them.

“Respect for minority groups should be considered, in some way, the touchstone for harmonious social coexistence and as an index of the civil maturity achieved by a country and its institutions,” the Pope said, quoting from his message.

“Guaranteeing the participation of minorities in public life is a sign of elevated civil progress, and this turns to the honor of those nations in which all citizens are guaranteed such participation in a climate of true liberty,” he said.