International Day of Peace 2026: Against Getting Used to Violence

In his message for the International Day of Peace 2026, the Superior General of the Redemptorists, Fr Rogério Gomes, says that Christmas does not allow us to look away. He links the manger and the cross, names hard facts about war and violence, and uses concrete examples to show what this means for people on the ground, especially for children.

He picks up the peace proclamation from the Christmas night, but without pushing it into a purely “pious” corner. If the child in the manger is the same Christ who suffers on the cross, then today’s suffering in war zones cannot be ignored. Again and again, he brings the fate of children to the center of his message.

Then he gets very specific. Referring to conflict data, he cites 61 armed conflicts involving state actors in 2024, the highest number since 1946. Eleven of these reached the scale of full war. Although the overall number of deaths compared to 2022 may have fallen slightly, he still speaks of nearly 160,000 people killed through organized violence. He adds that violence against civilians has increased and that conflicts are increasingly spilling across borders. He names 92 countries involved in wars beyond their own territory. At the same time, he notes that, according to estimates by the International Committee of the Red Cross, there are more than 120 armed conflicts worldwide, many of them barely visible to the public, yet marked by serious violations of international humanitarian law.

Alongside the figures, he describes images that sharpen his message. In one church in Bethlehem, he says, the nativity scene was set up on a pile of rubble, with the infant Jesus lying on ruins. In churches in North America, the Holy Family has been portrayed as detained, separated, or surrounded by signs of fear. For Gomes, these depictions are not an end in themselves, but a kind of commentary on the present. In this context, he also speaks about Ukraine. Many children, he says, have been violently separated from their families and their culture. Others have been buried under the rubble of their homes, destroyed by indiscriminate bombardment.

Here he takes up Pope Francis’ expression of a “piecemeal Third World War.” For Gomes, this does not remain a diagnosis. He draws a task from it. In this situation, Christians are called to be missionaries of hope. And he makes clear that this is not about abstract appeals. In some regions, Redemptorists themselves experience war and violence firsthand. He mentions Ukraine and also points to Nigeria as well as West and Central Africa, where many communities are threatened and live in constant fear of displacement.

The motto of his message is “On the way to an unarmed and disarming peace.” He does not mean a peace that simply covers up problems, but one that refuses to grow accustomed to ever more weapons as if that were the only answer. Gomes stresses that peace is not only a matter for politics, even though governments carry special responsibility. He also calls for a Church stance that does not entrench new enemy images, but takes the limits of love seriously.

That is why he urges cooperation with people of other religions, with institutions, and with all who work for justice and dialogue. He speaks openly of the fact that international organizations and political will are often not enough. Still, he does not dismiss small beginnings. He uses the image of the few loaves and fish. Even what seems insignificant at first can gain meaning when it is carried together. In this spirit, he quotes Pope Leo XIV in Beirut on 2 December 2025, calling people to open their hearts, lay aside prejudices, and open their religions to encounter.

Finally, Gomes widens the idea of peace to include creation. He refers to Laudato Si’ and recalls the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on 1 September. He also mentions the “Mass for the Care of Creation” and links this to a simple thought. Peace has to do with relationships, including our relationship with the earth. Reconciliation remains incomplete if it is thought only between human beings while leaving out the damaged relationship with creation.

At the end, he sets Mary, the Theotokos, before our eyes and recalls the beatitude of the peacemakers. It does not read like a box to tick, but like a quiet invitation. Peace should not remain only a word. People should act in ways that disarm, in their thinking, in their speaking, and in what they do, right where they are.