Pope Francis approves the theme of the World Day of Peace 2025

The Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development has made public the theme chosen by Pope Francis for the 58th World Day of Peace 2025 to be celebrated next January 1: “Forgive us our offenses, grant us your peace.”

This title “manifests a natural consonance with the biblical and ecclesial meaning of the jubilee year and is inspired in particular by the encyclical letters Laudato Si y Brothers allespecially around the concepts of hope and forgiveness, the heart of the Jubilee” called by Pope Francis for the year 2025.

This orientation supposes, according to the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, “a call to conversion aimed not at condemning, but at reconciling and reconciling.”

The dicastery considers that “concrete orientations can emerge that lead to a much-needed change in the spiritual, moral, social, economic, ecological and cultural spheres” from the reality of “the social conflicts and sins that afflict humanity today.” as well as the “hope inherent in the jubilee tradition of the removal of sins.”

Thus, he adds, “only from a true conversion, personal, community and international, can true peace flourish that is not only manifested in the conclusion of conflicts, but in a new reality in which wounds are healed and recognize the dignity of each person.”

In previous years, the topics proposed by Pope Francis for this day have been about artificial intelligence, dialogue between generations, the culture of care, or good politics.

An initiative of Saint Paul VI

The call to celebrate this day was made for the first time by Pope Saint Paul VI, who established that on January 1, 1968, what was then known as Peace Day, today World Day, would be celebrated.

In your first messagethe Pontiff noted that the intention is for this commemoration to “interpret the aspirations of the people, their rulers, the international entities that try to preserve peace throughout the world, the religious institutions so interested in promoting peace, the cultural, political and social movements that make peace their ideal, of youth – in whom the insight into the new paths of civilization is most vivid, necessarily oriented towards peaceful development, of wise men who see how necessary it is today peace and at the same time how threatened.”

This initiative was anticipated by the UN, which did not designate an International Day of Peace until 1981. The date, which is celebrated on September 21, has been called, since 2001, Day of Nonviolence and Ceasefire.