Growth of the entire creation, with the human person at its centre, towards the Creator. Disturbing that harmony of essential and fundamental relations, peace will become a mirage. Keeping the right relation between God and man and between man and man, the vertical and horizontal dimensions of human life, is a precondition for peace. Peace is only possible where a will to reconciliation exists. Hatred begets only hatred.
Reconciliation requires courage and generosity.
Letting the old wounds of hatred and violence bleed again is to deny peace a chance. The call to forgiveness was the final message of Jesus. Where the will to forgive prevails, war and conflict will find no place. Mr. President, At the end of the second millennium, and in the wake of the divisions and wars, violence and atrocities that have often marked its years, the human family needs a moment of self-examination. Concretely that means a resolve and commitment to a new Ideal in life.