Pope says hope for justice, world peace lies with youth

Pope Benedict XVI holds the ostensory as he celebrates a New Year's Eve vespers service in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Saturday, New Year’s Eve. The Pontiff marked the end of 2011 with prayers of thanks and said humanity awaits the new year with apprehension but also with hope for a better future. AP

VATICAN CITY–Pope Benedict XVI celebrated New Year’s Day with a homily on world peace which stressed the importance of educating youth in moral values, so they could become “builders of peace.”

The pontiff called on the world’s religious and educational leaders Sunday during a mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica to counter the “culture of relativism” by educating the younger generations in peace and justice.

“The culture of relativism raises a radical question: does it still make sense to educate? And then, to educate for what?” the pope said.

“In the face of the shadows that obscure the horizon of today’s world, to assume responsibility for educating young people in knowledge of the truth, in fundamental values and virtues, is to look to the future with hope,” he added.

The spiritual leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics said that in an age “strongly marked by a technological mentality,” the “social reality in which (children) grow up can lead them to… be intolerant and violent.”

If the young are helped to combine “a profound sense of justice with respect for their neighbor” and “a capacity to address conflicts without arrogance” they would “become people of peace and builders of peace,” he added.

“Boys and girls today are growing up in a world that has, so to speak, become smaller, where contacts between different cultures and traditions, even if not always direct, are constant,” the 84-year-old pontiff said.

“For them, now more than ever, it is indispensable to learn the importance and the art of peaceful coexistence, mutual respect, dialogue and understanding,” he added.