Pope once again stresses connection between poverty and war

VATICAN CITY, JULY 1, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is dedicating his message for the World Day of Peace to a theme lurking behind many conflicts: poverty.

“Combating Poverty: Building Peace” is the theme chosen by the Pope for this January’s 42nd World Day of Peace, celebrated on the first day of each year.

“The scandal of poverty reveals the inadequacy of current systems of human coexistence in promoting the realization of the common good. This imposes the need for reflection on the deep roots of material poverty and, consequently, also on spiritual poverty that makes man indifferent to the suffering of others.

“The answer, then, is to be sought first and foremost in the conversion of the human heart to the God of charity, so as to achieve poverty of spirit in the terms of the message of salvation announced by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”