Written by Let us celebrate Easter embracing Peace
Dear friends,
While Lent comes to an end, and we start to delve into the mystery of the Holy Week, I would like to reach out to each one of you, present in different parts of the world, with a message of peace, hope and communion.
As Pope Leo said, “Lent is a time… to place the mystery of God back in the centre of our lives, in order to find renewal in our faith and keep our hearts from being consumed by the anxieties and distractions of daily life.” Nevertheless, for some of us this has not been easy. While we see a world marked by growing uncertainty, conflict and suffering, we ask ourselves if this violence will ever end and we feel afraid and powerless in the face of so many global tensions.
This is why I felt compelled to return once again to the theme of peace, especially as we approach Easter. Christ’s Resurrection is the strength that sustains us in the challenge of living. The Resurrection is the foundation of Christian hope and the assurance that God continues to accompany humanity through all its dark times.
Allow me to recall the words of Pope Francis in his Urbi et Orbi message to the world for Easter 2025, just one day before he returned to the House of the Father: “The resurrection of Jesus is indeed the basis of our hope. Thanks to Christ – crucified and risen from the dead — hope does not disappoint… That hope is not an evasion, but a challenge; it does not delude, but empowers us… I would like us to renew our hope that peace is possible!”
I encourage all WUCWO women to accept this challenge, empowered by the assurance that the resurrection of the Lord gives us. Knowing that peace is not built through fear, threats or violence, but through authentic, patient and responsible dialogue and actions, let’s get down to work, firmly convinced that peace is not distant or unattainable. It is a gift that seeks to dwell within us, a gentle but powerful force capable of overcoming division and opening new paths where none seemed possible.
Women as peacemakers, teachers and recipients of peace
I invite you all to take a brief journey through the Church teachings on the recognition of women as active recipients and agents of peace. The guiding thread of this journey is the human dignity: if men and women fully share in that dignity, it follows that we are called to be, on an equal footing, peacemakers and recipients of peace.
· Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum (1891), the first major modern social encyclical, does not directly address peacebuilding, but establishes that a just social order is a necessary condition for peaceful coexistence.
· St. John XXIII’s Pacem in Terris (1963)marks a decisive change. For the first time, a papal document explicitly identifies women’s access to public life as a ‘sign of the times’ to be interpreted and incorporated by the Church. John XXIII notes that women ‘are becoming increasingly aware of their own dignity’ and that they no longer want to be treated as ‘instruments’, but demand rights compatible with that dignity, both in domestic and public life.
· At the Second Vatican Council, the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes (1965) condemned all discrimination based on sex as contrary to God’s plan and affirmed that men and women share equally in the common good. At the same time, in its analysis of peace—understood as the ‘work of justice’ and the ‘fruit of love’—the Constitution recognises that without the full recognition of women’s rights, there can be no authentic peace.
· After the Council, St. Paul VI established the World Day of Peace in 1967 and, in his annual messages, made increasing reference to the need for overcoming unjust structures. In Octogesima Adveniens (1971), he emphasised that discrimination against women is one of the most widespread forms of structural injustice and, as such, an obstacle to peace.
· St. John Paul II made one of the most systematic contributions. In his apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem (1988), he affirmed the essential equality of men and women, both of whom were created in the image and likeness of God. In his Message for the 1995 World Day of Peace, significantly titled ‘Women: Teachers of Peace’, he affirms that women possess a ‘feminine genius’ which predisposes them to care, reconciliation and peaceful resistance in the face of violence. Women are presented as ‘teachers of peace’ in the home and, by extension, in society.
· In his encyclical Caritas in Veritate (2009), Benedict XVI includes peacebuilding within the framework of integral development. Without justice that extends to women—in terms of access to education, work and political participation—development remains incomplete and peace precarious. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (2004), published during his pontificate, takes up this synthesis and devotes an explicit section to women’s equality in social and political life as a condition for peace.
· Pope Francis brought a fresh perspective to the Church’s social teaching. In his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (2013),he notes that there is still a need to create more opportunities for women to ‘play a more significant role in many public spheres’, including conflict resolution processes. In Fratelli Tutti (2020), his encyclical most directly focused on peacebuilding, he strongly states that without women, fraternity — and the peace that flows from it — is incomplete. He revives the tradition of active pacifism: peace is not the absence of war but the daily building of justice, dialogue and encounter, tasks in which women have historically demonstrated a unique capacity. Finally,in Laudate Deum (2023) and in his messages for the World Day of Peace, Pope Francis repeatedly emphasised that negotiation and reconciliation processes lose their effectiveness when they exclude women, position supported by empirical evidence.
· In his recent message for the 59th World Day of Peace, Pope Leo reiterates the message he has given to the world since his election: that the peace of the risen Christ is a peace that is “unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering”; that His “presence, His gift and His victory continue to shine through the perseverance of many witnesses through whom God’s work continues in the world, becoming ever more perceptible and luminous in the darkness of the times.” He recalls the words of St. Augustine: “Have peace, brothers and sisters. If you wish to draw others to it, be the first to possess it and keep it. Let what you possess burn within you so that it may set others ablaze.”
Peace: a constant presence and a path forward for WUCWO
Dear friends of WUCWO, let us celebrate this Easter by embracing peace! Encouraged by the hope that the Lord’s resurrection gives us, let’s welcome peace and acknowledge it as a concrete mission; as an act of love to be lived every day in our families, our jobs, our organisations, our communities and within the Church. Through our often quiet yet steadfast service and witness, we are already building bridges; fostering dialogue and a culture of encounter; living forgiveness; defending life, human dignity, justice and women rights, especially for the most vulnerable; caring for our common home and promoting ecumenic and interreligious dialogue. In doing so, we embody a peace that is humble, persevering and deeply transformative: a disarmed and disarming peace.
In this Holy Week, I warmly invite each of you to intensify your prayers, actions and daily commitment to peace. Let us all bear witness with our lives and become “teachers of peace” wherever we go, convinced that even our smallest gestures can contribute to reconciliation.
Inspired by Pope Leo’s words, we can be sure that “Even in places where only rubble remains, and despair seems inevitable, we still find people who have not forgotten peace. Just as on the evening of Easter Jesus entered the place where his disciples were gathered in fear and discouragement, so too the peace of the risen Christ continues to pass through doors and barriers in the voices and faces of his witnesses. This gift enables us to remember goodness, to recognise it as victorious, to choose it again, and to do so together”.
Dear sisters, I propose we continue walking together, united in faith and diversity, keeping hope love and peace alive at the heart of humanity. Let us experience the Holy Week with renewed hope, contemplating the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ as the ultimate sign that love is stronger than hatred, and life stronger than death. May the Risen Lord open our hearts, strengthen our faith and make us instruments of His peace in a wounded world.
With gratitude for your mission and closeness in prayer, I wish you, your families and organisations a blessed and peaceful Easter.
Mónica Santamarina
President General