“Every student’s “a-ha” moment of understanding or discovery is never solitary or singular; it is part of the long narrative that is human history. Though time and place may separate one generation from the next, and one community here from another community there, we depend on one another and learn from one another.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The world is not saved by threatening violence or by judging, oppressing or getting rid of others, Pope Leo XIV said.

"Rather, it is saved by tirelessly striving to understand, forgive, liberate and welcome everyone, without calculation and without fear," the pope said during Mass in St. Peter's Basilica for the feast of Mary, Mother of God, and World Peace Day Jan. 1.

Therefore, at the beginning of a new year with "new and unique days that await us, let us ask the Lord to help us experience at every moment, around us and upon us, the warmth of his fatherly embrace and the light of his benevolent gaze," he said in his homily.