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The COVID-19 pandemic that claimed many lives and continues to overwhelm the whole world, has obliged many people to live isolated and hidden. Saint Joseph, the foster father of Jesus who lived a hidden life, is more than ever the patron saint we need in these trying times.
Most Churches have stressed God’s continuous anger at our sins. Some Christian thinkers did not gladly support the idea of joy in one’s life. However, the Bible gives much importance to joy in people’s lives; God is shown as being happy and pursuing delight.
It is on the path of love–which is a broad way, never obvious or trivial–that happiness can be found. In love, we meet all those who choose, even if they belong to different faiths and cultures, to love others before themselves. It is the only way to full and lasting happiness.
It was not by accident that Jesus began His mission teaching: “Happy are the poor”, those who mourn, are merciful, work for peace, and suffer for a good cause. There is joy, satisfaction, a sense of fulfillment when one is radically committed on behalf of society.
People who can overcome adversity have developed the ability to recognize that what happened to them in the past is not their fault. Then, they take the next step to let go of anger as a pathway to peace.
There have been close to twelve peace agreements but they have failed to bring about significant long-term peace in the country. The future of peace and stability in South Sudan will very much depend on the political will of the political leaders.
Reconciliation is mostly a relationship-building process grounded on a restorative approach to justice which includes forgiveness and commitment to living together in peace.
Pope Francis’ new encyclical spends only six paragraphs on the Church’s doctrine on ‘just war,’ but Fratelli Tutti might have upended the entire teaching on the subject.
Three themes in Fratelli Tutti–fraternitas, building bridges, and peacemaking–indicate the influence of St. Francis of Assisi in the latest encyclical of Pope Francis.
Pope Francis sets out a vision for a new kind of politics in an encyclical that tackles a rising tide of “myopic” nationalism and moves the Church a step closer to a complete rejection of war.
