The 11 of abril, the 60th anniversary of the encyclical «Pacem in terris» (Peace in the World), we received the first message of Monsignor Darío as bishop emeritus at the Urban Peace Center. We had a wonderful meeting that allowed us to review the reflections and concerns that have accompanied the Church in recent decades around overcoming violence, its connection with the social realities and the construction of peace as an advance to dignify human life in its relationship with the nature. We share the message and we continue to build the guidelines of a Pastoral for Peace in our city Santiga de Cali.
By: Monsignor Darío de Jesús Monsalve
Sixty years ago, Pope St. John XXIII, on April 11, 1963, less than two months before his death (June 3), published his last encyclical: «Pacem in terris».
Peace, as the supreme aspiration of all peoples and an emanation of the natural order willed by God, must also generate right reason in all the various human orders, from the individual and local to the international and global.
In these orders, the values and pillars of peace must shine forth: truth, justice, love and freedom.
From «Pacem in terris» until today, the historical work for peace, entrusted «to all men of good will» with the Christmas proclamation of Jesus, Son of God and Son of man, recovers this territorial and planetary, inclusive and egalitarian, solidary and socio-environmental seal.
The accent of the Latin term «in terris», declined in the plural ablative, places us before the notion of territoriality, referring «to all men of good will», to all the peoples of the earth, to all orders of humanity, of the community, of civility and citizenship, to the union of nations and what today we call, with Pope Francis, the care of the Common Home.
He even goes so far as to propose «the need to create a public authority on a global level» to guarantee the protection of people and their rights.
May this meeting, promoted by the Urban Peace Center in Cali, enrich the horizon of spiritual depth, territorial rootedness and democratic and inclusive participation that peace has.
May Cali and our cities be forged as CITIES OF PEACE, taking people out of violence so that, together, we can take our conflicts out of violence and free all human life from it.
