Pope Begins New Year with Call to Combat Terrorism

Pope Benedict XVI has marked New Year’s Day with an appeal during a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Sunday to combat terrorism and other threats to world peace.

|TOP|The Pope called on New Year’s Day, which the Roman Catholic Church celebrates annually as its World Day of Peace, for individuals, governments and institutions to work together to combat terrorism, nihilism and “fanatic fundamentalism”, reports The Guardian.

He said in his homily that a “shock” of courage and faith in God was necessary to spread peace, adding that everyone must work together to combat the threats to world peace.

“It becomes ever more important to work together for peace when confronting the situations of injustice and violence that continue to oppress various parts of the world, those that are the new and most insidious threats to peace: terrorism, nihilism and fanatic fundamentalism,'' he said.

Pope Benedict also said that individuals, international organisations and world powers must take responsibility for promoting justice, solidarity and peace.

He called on the United Nations in particular to assume a renewed understanding of its responsibility to promote peace and justice “in a world ever more marked by the vast phenomenon of globalisation”.

|AD|During the Mass, the Pope added that he was praying that 2006 would “be for all of us a year of prosperity and peace”.

The service also saw youngsters dressed as the three kings and adults dressed in traditional costumes bring up offertory gifts to the altar, bedecked with pine and flowers for the Christmas season.

Prayers at the service were read out in a number of languages, including Chinese, Russian and Arabic.

The Mass was followed by Benedict’s New Year’s Day greetings which he issued in a half-dozen languages from his apartment window to tens of thousands of people gathered in the piazza.

Pope Benedict will continue the busy first week of the New Year with a number of engagements, including his weekly general audience on Wednesday, followed by a Mass to mark Epiphany on Friday and a ceremony on Sunday in which he will baptise several newborns in the frescoed Sistine Chapel.