Vatican City, Sep 27, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The theme of Pope John Paul II’s Message for the 38th World Day of Peace on January 1, 2005, made public today, is "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good."
The Pope’s message, according to the statement, "seeks to solicit awareness of evil as the cause and source of conflicts and wars, and at the same time, of the inseparable link between moral good and peace. Peace is, in fact, a good that comes as the fruit of inspired choices for good and oriented toward good."
The message emphasizes "behavior which leads to the exercise of personal and collective responsibility which has the special characteristic of looking for good."
"The will to seek out good and avoid evil must take into account the numerous social and economic problems that weigh on the lives of peoples - inequality, poverty, wide-spread injustice, insecurity - in order to find a solution inspired by justice and solidarity," reads the statement.