- by Bishop +Anthony Fisher OP

VATICAN CITY 12 July 2004 (CNS) -- The world needs Christian vocations more than ever as millions of people suffer from war and injustice and even more experience a deep longing for inner peace, Pope John Paul II said. The fields where workers are needed "appear more vast than ever," the pope said in a July 10 message to the general chapter of the Rogationist Fathers. As the world becomes more of a "global village" with competing political, economic and social interests impacting more and more people, there is an urgent need for "workers of reconciliation, witnesses of the truth that saves and builders of the one true and lasting peace based on justice and forgiveness," the pope wrote. Even more "widespread and profound" is the thirst for God found in individual human hearts, he said. "The bread of justice and peace cannot come from anywhere but on high," Pope John Paul wrote.