The Era of Peace after the Tribulation
Quotes from Popes about an Era of Peace
The Popes on the Era of Peace
Leo XIII
It will at length be possible that our many wounds be healed … that the splendors of peace be renewed, and swords and arms drop from the hand when all men shall acknowledge the empire of Christ and willingly obey His word…”
Encyclical on the Consecreated to the Sacred Heart - Annum Sacrum (25 May 1899), 11.
Pope St. Pius X
Oh! when in every city and village the law of the Lord is faithfully observed, when respect is shown for sacred things, when the Sacraments are frequented, and the ordinances of Christian life fulfilled, there will certainly be no more need for us to labor further to see all things restored in Christ. Nor is it for the attainment of eternal welfare alone that this will be of service—it will also contribute largely to temporal welfare and the advantage of human society ... when [piety] is strong and flourishing ‘the people will’ truly ‘sit in the fullness of peace… May God, “who is rich in mercy”, benignly speed this restoration of the human race in Jesus Christ ... And let us, Venerable Brethren, “in the spirit of humility”, with continuous and urgent prayer ask this of Him through the merits of Jesus Christ.
E Supremi, 14.
Pius XI
Here it is foretold that his kingdom will have no limits, and will be enriched with justice and peace: “in his days shall justice spring up, and abundance of peace…And he shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth”…When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony ... If the kingdom of Christ, then, receives, as it should, all nations under its way, there seems no reason why we should despair of seeing that peace which the King of Peace came to bring on earth ... Oh, what happiness would be Ours if all men, individuals, families, and nations, would but let themselves be governed by Christ!
Encyclical, Feast of Christ the King - Quas Primas, 11 Dec, 1925, 8, 19.“’And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring.’ He cannot but rejoice in the wonderful prophecy which filled even the Sacred Heart of Jesus with joy. ‘And they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.’ May God, and We join with you and with all the faithful in this prayer, shortly bring to fulfillment His prophecy by transforming this consoling vision of the future into a present reality.”
Encyclical, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio
Venerable Pope Pius XII
But however important it may be, the conversion of the individual pilgrim is not enough. We exhort you in this jubilee year, Beloved Sons and Venerable Brothers, to inspire among the faithful entrusted to your care a common effort for the Christian renewal of society in answer to Mary's appeal. “May blind spirits ... be illumined by the light of truth and justice ... so that those who have gone astray into error may be brought back to the straight path, that a just liberty may be granted the Church everywhere, and that an era of peace and true prosperity may come upon all the nations.
Encyclical Le Pellerinage De Lourdes, Paragraph 43-44
Pope St. John XXIII
At times we have to listen, much to our regret, to the voices of people who, though burning with zeal, lack a sense of discretion and measure. In this modern age they can see nothing but prevarication and ruin … We feel that we must disagree with those prophets of doom who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world were at hand. In our times, divine Providence is leading us to a new order of human relations which, by human effort and even beyond all expectations, are directed to the fulfilment of God’s superior and inscrutable designs, in which everything, even human setbacks, leads to the greater good of the Church.
Address for the Opening of Second Vatican Council, Oct. 11, 1962
Pope St. Paul VI
The unity of the world will be. The dignity of the human person shall be recognized not only formally but effectively. The inviolability of life, from the womb to old age… Undue social inequalities will be overcome. The relations between peoples will be peaceful, reasonable and fraternal. Neither selfishness, nor arrogance, nor poverty… [shall] prevent the establishment of a true human order, a common good, a new civilization.
urbi et orbi message, April 4th, 1971
Pope John Paul II
Before becoming Pope, Karol Wojtyla visited the U.S. in 1976 and gave a talk in which he stated:
As Pope, John Paul II, he said:We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through ... We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel ... Through your prayers and mine, it is possible to alleviate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it ...
Fr. John McCLoskey III, the final Confrontation. the Catholic Thing (1 June 2014)
…the tears of this century have prepared the ground for a new springtime of the human spirit.
General Audience. Jan 24, 2001This is our great hope and our invocation, ‘Your Kingdom come!’—a Kingdom of peace, justice and serenity, which will re-establish the original harmony of creation.
General Audience, November 6th, 2002, Zenit"God himself had provided to bring about that “new and divine” holiness with which the Holy Spirit wishes to enrich Christians at the dawn of the third millennium, in order to “make Christ the heart of the world.”
Address to the Rogationist Fathers. Paragraph 6We must not be afraid of the future. We must not be afraid of man. It is no accident that we are here. Each and every human person has been created in the “image and likeness” of the One who is the origin of all that is… with the help of God's grace, we can build in the next century and the next millennium a civilization worthy of the human person, a true culture of freedom. We can and must do so! And in doing so, we shall see that the tears of this century have prepared the ground for a new springtime of the human spirit.
https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1995/october/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_05101995_address-to-uno.htmlGod loves all men and women on earth and gives them the hope of a new era, an era of peace. His love, fully revealed in the Incarnate Son, is the foundation of universal peace.
Address to the United Nations in 1995…I did not hesitate to ask [the young] to make a radical choice of faith and life and present them with a stupendous task: to become “morning watchmen” at the dawn of the new millennium.
Message for Celebration of the World Youth Day of Peace Jan 1, 2000Encyclical, Novo Millennio Ineuente,
On this important occasion, I would like to renew to you the appeal I made to all the young people at Tor Vergata: accept the commitment to be morning watchmen at the dawn of the new millennium. This is a primary commitment, which keeps its validity and urgency as we begin this century with unfortunate dark clouds of violence and fear gathering on the horizon. Today, more than ever, we need people who live holy lives, watchmen who proclaim to the world a new dawn of hope, brotherhood and peace.
Adress to the Guanelli Youth Movement, April 20, 2002.
After purification through trial and suffering, the dawn of a new era is about to break.
General Audience, Sept 10, 2003. Examining the context of this quote, we see that John Paul is referring to the Cnaticle of Ezekiel. But he makes it equally clear that he is ot making a merely historical overstaion about Exekiel's own Expectations of Redemption. Rther he changes the terminaology, referring to it now as "our" canticle.
Peter Seewald book length interview with JPII called "Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Millennium."
The Pope [John Paul] does indeed cherish a great expectation that the millennium of divisions will be followed by a millennium of unifications. He has in some sense the vision that the first Christian millennium was the millennium of Christian unity. There were schisms, as we know, but there was still the unity of East and West; the second millennium was the millennium of great divisions; and that now, precisely at the end [of the second millennium], we could rediscover a new unity through a great common reflection. His whole ecumenical effort stands in this historical-philosophical perspective… [Vatican II] is thus filled with the hope that the millennia have their physiognomy; that all the catastrophes of our century, all its tears, as the Pope says, will be caught up at the end and turned into a new beginning. Unity of mankind, unity of religions, unity of Christians—we ought to search for these unities again, so that a more positive epoch may really begin. We must have visions. This is a vision that inspires and that challenges us to move in this direction. The Pope’s untiring activity comes precisely from his visionary power ...
Peter Seewald. Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Millennium. Pgs 237-8
Pope Francis
NOTE: Many good Catholics would say history will judge Francis to be a bad pope. However, he is still our shepherd and what he says still matters in the magisterial flow.
But where are we journeying? Is there a common goal? And what is this goal? The Lord responds to us through the prophet Isaiah, saying: “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths”(2:2-3). This is what Isaiah says regarding the goal toward which we are travelling. It is a universal pilgrimage toward a common goal, which in the Old Testament is Jerusalem, where the Temple of the Lord rises. For from there, from Jerusalem came the revelation of the Face of God and of his Law. Revelation found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and he, the Word made flesh, became the “Temple of the Lord”: he is both guide and goal of our pilgrimage, of the pilgrimage of the entire People of God; and in his light the other peoples may also walk toward the Kingdom of justice, toward the Kingdom of peace. The Prophet continues: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (2:4). Allow me to repeat what the Prophet says; listen carefully: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”. But when will this occur? What a beautiful day it shall be, when weapons are dismantled in order to be transformed into tools for work! What a beautiful day that shall be! And this is possible! Let us bet on hope, on the hope for peace, and it will be poosible
Angelus Address, Dec 1, 2013
And in 2019, Pope Francis signed a declaration which reads in part:
In conclusion, our aspiration is that…this Declaration may be a witness to the greatness of faith in God that unites divided hearts and elevates the human soul…This is what we hope and seek to achieve with the aim of finding a universal peace that all can enjoy in this life.
A document on Human Fraternity. Feb 4, 2019
The kingdom of God is here and [emphasis in original] the kingdom of God will come. It is the treasure hidden in the field; it is the precious pearl for the sake of which the merchant sells all he has (cf. Mt 13:44-46). The kingdom of God is the good wheat that grows alongside the weeds, and you have to fight against the weeds (cf. Mt 13:24, 40). The kingdom of God is also hope; the kingdom of God is coming now but at the same time has not yet come completely. This is how the kingdom of God has already come: Jesus has taken flesh, he has become man like us, he walks with us, and he gives us hope for our tomorrow: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20). The kingdom of God is something that belongs to us, or rather, it is better to think of it another way: we must allow ourselves to be possessed by the certainty that it has come. This is true Christian faith. But at the same time there is also the need to cast the anchor there and to hold on to the cord because the Kingdom is still coming. We do not possess the rope fully, and there is always the risk that it will slip from our hands. This is true Christian hope. These two actions are very important: faith and hope
Our Father, Reflections on the Lord's Prayer. "Thy Kingdom Come"
Collect for the 34th Week in Ordinary Time. Roman Missal.
“Stir up the will of your faithful, we pray, O Lord, that, striving more eagerly to bring your divine work to fruitful completion, they may receive in greater measure the healing remedies your kindness bestows.” –
See also
Lists of quotes from Early Church Fathers, Popes, Old Testament assembled by Daniel O'Connor and Mark Mallett.