Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Vol. 7. No. 12 My dear sisters and brothers in Christ, Peace be with you. This powerful greeting, which our Redeemer used when he first appeared to the disciples after his resurrection, was the first thing Pope Leo XIV said to us when he began his Petrine ministry on May 8, 2025. And based on his many reflections on the importance of peace in today’s world, I believe it’s fair to say that our new Holy Father has been emphasizing peace ever since. Earlier this month, in my newsletter dated January 2, I quoted from Pope Leo’s homilies in Türkiye and Lebanon: Dear brothers and sisters, all that has happened in these recent days in Türkiye and Lebanon teaches us that peace is possible, and that Christians in dialogue with men and women of other faiths and cultures can contribute to building it up. Let us not forget that peace is possible! The Holy Father insists that “peace is possible.” He counsels us to resist the temptation to give up hope or to acquiesce to the fear that our efforts to build a genuine peace are hopeless. It’s true that peace is difficult to achieve and to sustain, and that without God’s help, we have little or no chance of succeeding as permanent peacemakers. But God is always with us, challenging us and encouraging us in our efforts to make peace a reality—in our hearts, our homes, our communities, and our world. Pope Leo’s message for the World Day of Peace 2026 (see selection below) is a continuation of the dialogue about peace that began in modern times with Pope Saint John XXIII’s 1963 encyclical Pacem in Terris, and that has involved the thinking of all recent popes. (Even Pope John Paul I, whose brief time in office did not allow for sustained reflection on this subject, observed during his Angelus Message on September 10, 1978, that “All men are hungry and thirsty for peace, especially the poor, who pay more and suffer more in troubled times and in wars.”) As he continues the discussion of his predecessors about peace on earth, Pope Leo makes two points that are especially worthy of our reflection. First, he says that “the peace of the risen Jesus is unarmed, because his was an unarmed struggle in the midst of concrete historical, political and social circumstances.” An unarmed peace can only exist when there is a radical commitment to nonviolence. This means that genuine peace can only exist in an environment that is free from all repression or fear. “The idea of the deterrent power of military might, especially nuclear deterrence,” the Holy Father says, “is based on the irrationality of relations between nations, built not on law, justice and trust, but on fear and domination by force.” Secondly, Pope Leo says that because “goodness is disarming,” genuine peace requires that we surrender our arms. Quoting Saint John XXIII, he says: Everyone must realize that, unless this process of disarmament be thoroughgoing and complete, and reach people’s very souls, it is impossible to stop the arms race, or to reduce armaments, or — and this is the main thing — ultimately to abolish them entirely. Everyone must sincerely co-operate in the effort to banish fear and the anxious expectation of war from our minds. But this requires that the fundamental principles upon which peace is based in today’s world be replaced by an altogether different one, namely, the realization that true and lasting peace among nations cannot consist in the possession of an equal supply of armaments but only in mutual trust. Peace only comes when we have banished all resentment and fear, when we have learned to forgive past offenses and when we have begun to trust each other. Disarmament must be “thoroughgoing and complete, and reach people’s very souls,” Otherwise the fragile ceasefires we accomplish cannot last. Peace is a gift of God’s unconditional love, Pope Leo tells us. But because it is a precious gift that is too easily neglected or abused, we who long for peace must accept the serious responsibility of nurturing it, caring for it, and always guarding it. If we neglect this sacred duty or take it for granted, the consequences will be dire. This is what Pope Leo calls “the disarming work of diplomacy.” It is the hard work of peacemaking and peacekeeping that has been entrusted to world leaders from very different cultures, religions, socio-political and economic points of view. But it would be a serious mistake to think that humankind can afford to hand over this disarming work to a relatively few “experts.” In fact, we are all responsible for building peace in our world. Unless all of us insist on treating one another with dignity, respect, and justice, we will never be able to achieve the peace that we long for and that we know God expects us to build and sustain. To help us in the difficult work of peacemaking, we must turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, and ask her to help us to forgive one another, listen to each other, and trust and respect all our sisters and brothers. Above all, we must ask Mary, Mother of the Church, to accompany us and to encourage us as we surrender our arms and trust that the grace of God will protect us and free us from every evil that threatens us. May the Holy Mother of God guide us on our quest for the Peace of Christ, which is disarming and unarmed. May the Queen of Peace help us to accept the serious responsibility for taking care of and sharing this precious gift of God’s unconditional love. Sincerely yours in Christ the Redeemer, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R. Archbishop of Newark