Anything that threatens the traditional family threatens peace, because the family "is the first and indispensable teacher of peace," Pope Benedict XVI said.

In his annual message for the Jan 1 celebration of the World Day of Peace, the pope also said the responsibilities learned and the joys and struggles shared within individual families must be mirrored on a global level because everyone is part of one human family.

The pope chose The Human Family, A Community of Peace as the theme for 2008, the 40th anniversary of the Catholic Church's celebration of World Peace Day.

"The first form of communion between persons is that born of the love of a man and a woman who decide to enter a stable union in order to build together a new family," the pope wrote.

"But the peoples of the earth, too, are called to build relationships of solidarity and cooperation among themselves, as befits members of the one human family," he said.

War and violence, exploitation of the weak, rampant poverty and underdevelopment, destruction of the environment and the arms race are all threatening signs that individuals and nations have not learned to live together in harmony and mutual responsibility, the pope said.

"Humanity today is unfortunately experiencing great division and sharp conflicts which cast dark shadows on its future," he said.

In his message, Pope Benedict wrote, "In difficult times such as these, it is necessary for all persons of good will to come together to reach concrete agreements aimed at an effective demilitarisation, especially in the area of nuclear arms."

In explaining the theme he chose for the message, the pope said the fact that a strong, healthy family is the basis of a healthy society is not simply a slogan.

"In a healthy family life we experience some of the fundamental elements of peace: justice and love between brothers and sisters; the role of authority expressed by parents; loving concern for the members who are weaker because of youth, sickness or old age; mutual help in the necessities of life; readiness to accept others and, if necessary, to forgive them," Pope Benedict said.

The pope said that anyone who weakens the institution of the family weakens "what is in effect the primary agency of peace" in society.

"Everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman, everything that directly or indirectly stands in the way of its openness to the responsible acceptance of a new life, everything that obstructs its right to be primarily responsible for the education of its children, constitutes an obstacle on the road to peace," he said.

The family needs and has a right to a home, employment, education for the children and health care, the pope said.

But the whole human family has parallel needs and rights, he said, including the need for an environment that is used with care and preserved for future generations.

"Human beings, obviously, are of supreme worth vis-à-vis creation as a whole," the pope said. "Respecting the environment does not mean considering material or animal nature more important than man."

However, he said, the earth belongs to all people and to all generations and, therefore, must be used with care.

Pope Benedict said the costs and sacrifices required to protect the environment and to halt its degradation must be shared globally, but -- as in a family -- with an awareness of the limited resources of the poorer nations and the greater responsibility of the industrialised countries.

The pope said it might be necessary to establish a new international agency to coordinate efforts to ensure "the stewardship of this 'home' of ours."

Within the topic of ecology, he said, special attention must be paid to "the stewardship of the earth's energy resources," to exaggerated levels of consumption in some countries, to the need to expand the use of renewable energy sources and to ensure that poorer countries that possess natural energy resources are not exploited.

Pope Benedict also dedicated a chapter of his message to the need for people around the world, like members of one family, to hold certain values in common.

"For the sake of peace," he wrote, "a common law is needed, one which would foster true freedom rather than blind caprice and protect the weak from oppression by the strong."

In too many situations, the pope said, "the weak must bow not to the demands of justice, but to the naked power of those stronger than themselves."
(CNS)