Pope Laments Growing World Tensions

He lamented the difficulty "with which humanity strives to form that common awareness of being the 'family of nations' that John Paul II indicated as the ideal to the general assembly of the United Nations?."

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (Zenit) - Recent tensions on the international scene are a cause for lively concern, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope affirmed this today after he prayed the midday Angelus with crowds gathered at the summer papal residence at Castel Gandolfo.

The Holy Father did not refer to any particular conflicts, but seemed to allude to tensions between Russia and the West, following the former's brief war with Georgia.

"We must note, with bitterness, the threat of a progressive deterioration in the climate of confidence and cooperation that should characterize relations between nations," the Pontiff said.

And he lamented the difficulty "with which humanity strives to form that common awareness of being the 'family of nations' that John Paul II indicated as the ideal to the general assembly of the United Nations?"

"We must deepen the awareness of being united by a common destiny, that, in the final analysis, is a transcendent destiny, to avert the return to nationalistic conflicts that in other historical periods have had such tragic consequences," the Bishop of Rome continued. "The recent events have weakened the confidence in many that such experiences had been consigned to the past."

Nevertheless, Benedict XVI said that "we must not give in to pessimism."

"We must instead actively commit ourselves to reject the temptation to confront new situations with old systems," he stated. "Violence must be repudiated!"

The Pope recommended transparent negotiation to settle controversies, fidelity to the given word and pursuit of the common good as some of the "routes to take, with tenacity and creativity, to build fruitful and sincere relations and to guarantee to present and future generations times of concord and moral and civil progress."

He invited the faithful to pray for this intention, "so that all the members of the international community and those, in particular, who have been given great responsibility, will work with generosity to re-establish the superior motivations of justice and peace."

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