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Peace Sunday: an appeal for solidarity and justice

January 17, 2025

Image shows a dove of peace holding a twig bearing leaves, stencilled onto a pink wall, with a gun stencil overlaying the bird's breast. 'Image peace' is stencilled underneath.

Peace Sunday will be celebrated this weekend with the theme chosen by Pope Francis: "Forgive us our trespasses: Grant us your peace". Writing in this year's Message, Pope Francis highlights the role of debt in promoting global inequality and limiting human flourishing:

"Foreign debt has become a means of control whereby certain governments and private financial institutions of richer countries unscrupulously, and indiscriminately, exploit the human and natural resources of poorer countries, simply to satisfy the demands of their own markets."

In addition, different peoples, already burdened by international debt, find themselves also forced to bear the burden of the 'ecological debt' incurred by more developed countries. Foreign debt and ecological debt are two sides of the same coin, namely the mindset of exploitation that has culminated in the debt crisis. In the spirit of this Jubilee Year, I urge the international community to work towards forgiving foreign debt in recognition of the ecological debt existing between the North and the South of this world. This is an appeal for solidarity, but above all for justice."

You can read the Pope's message in full here. Pax Christi have produced a number of resources to support the celebration of Peace Sunday, including homily notes and reflections, you can find them on the CBCEW website.

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