The dignity and lives of millions of human beings are offended and downtrodden day after day in too many parts of the world. We wish to take up and share this grief, taking onto our own shoulders the responsibility of being builders of peace. In a world full of humiliation and violence, where falsehood and war are rife, reasserting hope takes courage. The grief of people who have suffered and continue to suffer is not calmed by the words of those who promise to pinpoint the guilty parties, nor by those who demand the vengeance of one nation against another. This grief finds consolation in the presence of men and women engaged in building peace in truth. Because 'truth', as John Paul II said in the sermon which preceded the Mass of 1 January, is 'the strength of peace': this is the hope we wish to reintroduce with the Meeting.