Peace begins with You. And with Me. Now.
The slogan for 8 June 2025 invites us to take personal and communitarian responsibility and to participate urgently in building peace day by day as lay Christians immersed in our time, which unfortunately sees a ‘third world war in pieces’.
Pope Leo XIV encourages us: ‘This is the peace of the Risen Christ, an unarmed peace and a disarming peace, humble and persevering. It comes from God, God who loves us all unconditionally. (…) Help us too, and then help one another, to build bridges through dialogue and encounter, uniting us all to be one people always at peace.’
Humanity – dialogue – common good are the three words that will help develop the general topic in the coming weeks, with three steps every Wednesday (21-28 May and 4 June), on the way to 8 June 2025.
We leave it to you to promote this roadmap towards 8 June, when we will stop to invoke peace at 1 p.m. in every country.
Wherever you happen to be,
Sunday 8 June 2025 at 1.00 p.m.,
Stop to invoke peace, everyone according to his own tradition.
****
- On the afternoon of 8 June, there will be a special event on the occasion of the Jubilee of Associations and Movements, on Pentecost Sunday:
Pax et bonum. Establishing peace for the common good through international law
International Conference and Torchlight procession – Rome and on line, 8 June 2025
We can all participate online FORM
- During this Easter Season, we also commemorate the prayer proposal Via Lucis – Via Pacis
Humanity
To build peace is to affirm our shared humanity beyond differences, nationality, or belief
‘It is a time of conversion and renewal and, above all, an opportunity to leave conflicts behind and embark on a new path, confident that, by working together, each of us in accordance with his or her own sensibilities and responsibilities, can build a world in which everyone can lead an authentically human life in truth, justice and peace.’
Leo XIV, 16.05.2025
‘May the principle of humanity never fail to be the hallmark of our daily actions. In the face of the cruelty of conflicts that involve defenceless civilians and attack schools, hospitals and humanitarian workers, we cannot allow ourselves to forget that it is not targets that are struck, but persons, each possessed of a soul and human dignity.’
Pope Francis, 20.04.2025
Dialogue
Building peace requires dialogue, beginning with listening as an indispensable basis for the culture of encounter to be promoted among persons and peoples in conflict
I believe that religions and interreligious dialogue can make a fundamental contribution to fostering a climate of peace. This naturally requires full respect for religious freedom in every country, since religious experience is an essential dimension of the human person. Without it, it is difficult, if not impossible, to bring about the purification of the heart necessary for building peaceful relationships.
Leo XIV, 16 May 2025
We have to be able to dialogue with the men and women of today, to understand their expectations, doubts and hopes, and to bring them the Gospel, Jesus Christ himself, God incarnate, who died and rose to free us from sin and death. We are challenged to be people of depth, attentive to what is happening around us and spiritually alert. To dialogue means to believe that the “other” has something worthwhile to say, and to entertain his or her point of view and perspective. Engaging in dialogue does not mean renouncing our own ideas and traditions, but the claim that they alone are valid or absolute. Pope Francis, 2014
Common Good
Building peace means working together for the common good, which must be pursued in order to protect the dignity of the person at the centre of every social and political action.
We are living in times that are both difficult to navigate and to recount. They present a challenge for all of us but it is one that we should not run away from. On the contrary, they demand that each one of us, in our different roles and services, never give in to mediocrity. The Church must face the challenges posed by the times. In the same way, communication and journalism do not exist outside of time and history. Saint Augustine reminds of this when he said, “Let us live well and the times will be good. We are the times” (Discourse 80.8).
Leo XIV, 12 May 2025
Discussions are needed in which all those directly or indirectly affected (farmers, consumers, civil authorities, scientists, seed producers, people living near fumigated fields, and others) can make known their problems and concerns, and have access to adequate and reliable information in order to make decisions for the common good, present and future.
Pope Francis Laudato si’ 135
****
One Minute for Peace was launched for the first time on June 6, 2014 at 1 p.m., in support of the “Invocation for Peace” meeting, promotedby Pope Francis on June 8 in the Vatican Gardens togetherwith the President of Israel (Simon Peres), the President ofthe Palestinian Authority (Maḥmūd ʿAbbās – Abu Mazen),and the Patriarch of Constantinople (Bartholomew I).
