VATICAN - Pope tells 11 new ambassadors: “Peace is not just a political or military situation without conflict; rather it is the sum of conditions that allow concord among all and the personal development of each.”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – On the morning of Thursday, December 18, the Holy Father Benedict XVI received the Letters of Credence of 11 new ambassadors to the Holy See from Malawi, Sweden, Sierra Leon, Iceland, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Belize, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, and the Fiji Islands.
“The diversity of your provenance", said the Pope, "gives me cause to thank God for His creative love and for the multiplicity of His gifts, which never cease to surprise humanity. It is a teaching. At times diversity causes fear, which is why it is not to be wondered at if human beings prefer the monotony of uniformity. Some political-economic systems, claiming pagan or religious origins, have afflicted humanity for too long, attempting to render it the same through demagogy and violence. Those systems have reduced and continue to reduce the human being to a wretched slavery at the service of a single ideology or of an inhuman and pseudo-scientific economy. We all know that there is no single political model, an ideal to be followed in every detail, and that political philosophy evolves in time and in its expression through the fine-tuning of human intelligence and the lessons learned from political and economic experience. Each country has a characteristic genius and some 'demons', and each progresses along a path, which is at times painful but its own, toward a future that seems bright.”
The Holy Father then mentioned that one of the essential aspects of the mission of the ambassador is the quest for and promotion of peace. The ambassador, therefore, “should be a peacemaker...which is not just a person with a calm and reconciling character that wishes to live in harmony with everyone and avoid conflict as much as possible, but he is also a person that dedicates himself completely to the service of peace and takes an active role in bringing about peace, sometimes even at the cost of his own life...peace is not just a political or military situation without conflict; rather it is the sum of conditions that allow concord among all and the personal development of each. God desires peace for mankind and He offers it as a gift.”
In his address, the Pontiff then reflected on the fact that “true peace is not possible unless justice reigns” and that “our world thirsts for peace and justice.” Recalling the Note of the Holy See on the eve of the Doha Conference on the current financial crisis and its repercussions on society and individuals, the Pope highlighted that such reflections are an opportunity to “promote dialogue on various ethical aspects that should guide relations between finance and development, and encourage governors and economic actors to find solid and lasting solutions for the good of all people, especially for those who are most vulnerable to the dramatic consequences of the crisis.” He then mentioned that justice “does not just refer to the social or even ethical spheres. It does not just refer to what is equitable or in conformity with the law...God's justice...puts all things in their place, all things in order, so that the world might be adjusted to God's plan and His order. The noble mission of the ambassador, therefore, consists in employing your art so that all 'might be adjusted', so that the nation you serve might live not only in peace with others but also in accordance with the justice that it shows in the equity and solidarity of its international relationships and in which its citizens, enjoying peace, might live their beliefs freely and serenely and thus achieve God's 'justness.'” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 19/12/2008)