“Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace” is the theme chosen by Pope Francis for next year’s “World Day of Peace.”
By Christopher Wells
“Only from a genuine conversion on all levels – personal, local and international – will true peace be able to flourish”, says the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Development in its statement on the theme for the 2025 World Day of Peace. The Dicastery adds that peace comes not only from an end to conflicts, “but also in a new reality in which wounds are healed and each person’s dignity is recognized”.
The World Day of Peace is observed each year on January 1st, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Since its establishment in 1967 by Pope St Paul VI, the Pope’s have taken the occasion to offer magisterial reflections in Messages for the day, dealing with topics such as the United Nations, human rights, diplomacy, and economic development.
The theme chosen by the Holy Father for the World Day of Peace for 2025 is “Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace”, corresponding to “the biblical and ecclesial understanding of the Jubilee Year”.
Hope and forgiveness at the heart of the Jubilee
In its statement, the Dicastery says the theme is inspired by Pope Francis’s encyclical letters Laudato síand Fratelli tutti, “and above all by the concepts of Hope and Forgiveness, which are at the heart of the Jubilee, a time for conversion that calls us not to condemn, but instead to bring about reconciliation and peace”.
The Dicastery goes on to note by “considering the reality of conflicts and social sins afflicting humanity today in light of the hope inherent in the Jubilee tradition of the forgiveness of sins and the cancellation of debts, together with the reflections of the Fathers of the Church in this regard, concrete principles emerge that can lead to a much needed spiritual, social, economic, ecological and cultural change”.
