Cardinal Tobin: Peace, a gift of God’s unconditional love, is our responsibility

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

Peace be with you. This powerful greeting, which our Redeemer used when he first appeared to the disciples after his resurrection, was the first thing Pope Leo XIV said to us when he began his Petrine ministry on May 8, 2025. And based on his many reflections on the importance of peace in today’s world, I believe it’s fair to say that our new Holy Father has been emphasizing peace ever since.

Earlier this month, in my newsletter dated January 2, I quoted from Pope Leo’s homilies in Türkiye and Lebanon:

Dear brothers and sisters, all that has happened in these recent days in Türkiye and Lebanon teaches us that peace is possible, and that Christians in dialogue with men and women of other faiths and cultures can contribute to building it up.  Let us not forget that peace is possible!

The Holy Father insists that “peace is possible.” He counsels us to resist the temptation to give up hope or to acquiesce to the fear that our efforts to build a genuine peace are hopeless. It’s true that peace is difficult to achieve and to sustain, and that without God’s help, we have little or no chance of succeeding as permanent peacemakers. But God is always with us, challenging us and encouraging us in our efforts to make peace a reality—in our hearts, our homes, our communities, and our world.

Pope Leo’s message for the World Day of Peace 2026 (see selection below) is a continuation of the dialogue about peace that began in modern times with Pope Saint John XXIII’s 1963 encyclical Pacem in Terris, and that has involved the thinking of all recent popes. (Even Pope John Paul I, whose brief time in office did not allow for sustained reflection on this subject, observed during his Angelus Message on September 10, 1978, that “All men are hungry and thirsty for peace, especially the poor, who pay more and suffer more in troubled times and in wars.”)

Continue reading Cardinal Tobin’s latest newsletter.