By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Pope Benedict XVI has chosen religious freedom as the theme for the celebration of the 2011 World Day of Peace.
In a communique released by the Vatican press office yesterday, the theme for the next World Day of Peace, to be celebrated Jan. 1, 2011, will be “Religious Freedom, the Path to Peace.”
“It is well known that in many parts of the world there are various forms of restriction or denial of religious freedom, from discrimination and marginalisation based on religion, to acts of violence against religious minorities,” the communique reads. “The World Day of Peace will therefore be dedicated to the theme of religious freedom.”
The announcement goes on to say that there are many areas of the world today in which “forms of restrictions and limitations to religious freedom persist, both where communities of believers are a minority, and where communities of believers are not a minority, and where more sophisticated forms of discrimination and marginalisation exist, on the cultural level and in the spheres of public, civil and political activity.”
The communique recalls remarks made by the Pope to the United Nations General Assembly in 2008 when he said “It is inconceivable that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves – their faith – in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one’s rights. The rights associated with religion are all the more in need of protection if they are considered to clash with a prevailing secular ideology or with majority religious positions of an exclusive nature.”
It concludes by highlighting how “man cannot be fragmented, and separated from what he believes, because that in which he believes has an impact on his life and on his person. ‘Refusal to recognise the contribution to society that is rooted in the religious dimension and in the quest for the Absolute – by its nature, expressing communion between persons – would effectively privilege an individualistic approach, and would fragment the unity of the person’. It is for this reason that: ‘Religious Freedom is the Path to Peace’.”
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
