It is an hour into 2007, which means today is the World Day of Peace. Our world is a world at war. Iraq grabs the headlines, but armed conflicts continue to ravage Africa & Asia. During 2005 the world’s peoples suffered 32 armed conflicts in 27 states.Gone are the days (if they ever existed) when war affected only the soldiers sent to the battle field by the heads of nation states. Today's casualties of armed conflict are 90% civilian, many of them women and children.
At the present moment, there are over 20 million children who have been displaced by war within and outside their countries.
Some 300,000 young persons under the age of 18 are currently being exploited as Child Soldiers in as many as 30 areas of conflict around the world.
Over 25 million people are currently displaced within their own national borders, not to mention the 12 million refugees registered by the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
Please pray for peace on this World Day of Peace.
I entrust my urgent prayer for all humanity at the beginning of the year 2007, to which we look with hearts full of hope, notwithstanding the dangers and difficulties that surround us. May Mary show us, in her Son, the Way of peace, and enlighten our vision, so that we can recognize Christ's face in the face of every human person, the heart of peace! - Pope Benedict XVI, 2007 World Peace Day Message
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