Family members from different generations attend an encounter and Mass for the elderly led by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in this Sept. 28, 2014, file photo. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

By Junno Arocho Esteves • Catholic News Service • Posted November 15, 2021

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Lasting peace in the world can be achieved only by responding to the needs of current and future generations, the Vatican said as it announced the theme Pope Francis chose for his 2022 World Peace Day message.

“Education, work and dialogue between generations: tools for building lasting peace” will be the theme for the Jan. 1 commemoration and for the message Pope Francis will write for the occasion, said a Vatican communique published Nov. 13.

The Vatican said education, work and dialogue are consistently evolving and that Pope Francis’ message will “propose an innovative reading that responds to the needs of current and future times.”

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The pope’s message, the communique said, will be an invitation “to read the signs of the times with the eyes of faith, so that the direction of this change awakens new and old questions with which it is right and necessary to be confronted.”

Pope Francis will seek to answer questions about education and how it contributes to lasting peace, the Vatican said. He will also address how work can “respond more or less to the vital needs of human beings on justice and freedom.”

Lastly, the Vatican said the pope’s message also will look at the extent to which generations are in solidarity with each other and whether governments “succeed in setting a horizon of peace.”

The pope’s full message for World Peace Day, traditionally released by the Vatican in mid-December, is sent, through Vatican diplomats, to the leaders of nations around the world.