Today at the opening of this Third World Peace Conference, I would like to express my deepest respect and appreciation to you for participating in this historic event. Kindly permit me to extend my heartfelt gratitude to each of you who have traveled here from afar to allow this magnificent conference to take place. I know you have done so because of your desire to be the makers of true world peace. I am grateful to have this occasion to share with you my views on the meaning of true world peace. More than at any previous time, these matters must be of the utmost concern during this Third World Peace Conference.

I would like to share with you, members and supporters of the Federation for World Peace, about my activities over these past few months. Recognizing that God has a providential plan for Latin America, I undertook an ambitious speaking tour of 23 nations including the Southern Cone, the Andean Pact nations, the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico. In each nation I visited, I shared my views with key leaders. In eight of the nations I had the opportunity to meet personally with the president and discuss matters related to world peace. The subject of the public speech which I delivered in each country was "The True Family and I."

While traveling from east to west, and from north to south I prayed and reflected upon this special part of the world. I thought deeply about what the thirty nations comprising Latin America must do to achieve true peace and build an ideal society.

Clearly Latin America has stunning, and abundant, potential. There are seemingly unlimited natural resources, and the human energies have hardly begun to be tapped. Latin America is a rich, peaceful, natural paradise of grandiose mountains and virgin lands. The mountains and jungles hearken back to the original state of creation, the Garden of Eden.

I contemplated the glory-filled days which await Latin America in the 21st century. At every opportunity I gave the same counsel to the leaders I met there. I told them, "Please do not follow the footsteps of the developed nations. Do not blindly repeat the environmental errors committed by the wealthy countries in their rush to harness energies in the name of progress."

Why did I give such advice? I see a grim future for these so-called developed nations. Frankly, despite their wealth, they do not possess the happiness and satisfaction that humanity seeks.

Let us consider for a moment the case of the United States. For the past 25 years, I have done my utmost to establish the basis for world peace in that nation that I love dearly. I suffered persecution at America's hands even as I was trying to guide her in the right direction, but my hope in that great nation and belief in its providential destiny has never wavered.

In the 1960s when I first visited "the land of opportunity," it seemed that the whole world wanted to be like the United States. We deeply admired the life depicted on American television and cinema. On Sundays, the rich and moving sound of church hymns echoed throughout the land. The comic character, Superman, the defender of "truth, justice and the American way" was a symbol of America's righteous spirit. Her city streets were orderly, spotless and beautiful. In those days, the whole world looked to America with an envious eye.

When we look at America today, what do we see? We see a nation in decay. Difficult an seemingly insoluble problems are mounting. Moral corruption and rising violent crime are most disturbing. Murder, drugs, divorce, child abuse, kidnapping and teenage pregnancy all characterize this country. As one who loves that great nation with all my heart, I am deeply pained by what I see.

Yet the phenomenon of rising corruption is not limited to the United States. As the twentieth century draws to a close, we see all the developed nations struggling with these same problems.

What is the reason? It is because the developed countries of the world have fallen into a chasm of materialism and selfish nationalism.

When the mind and spirit are obsessed with the search for material goals, the true human essence becomes a slave to selfish desire. It results in the undermining of true love. Cities are lined with skyscrapers and farmlands yield record crops, but the human heart is parched and arid like a desert. Human lives become empty because an oasis of true love cannot be found amid all this material bounty. In a vicious cycle, the absence of true love serves as a breeding ground for increasing selfishness. One of the most serious victims of selfishness is the creation-Mother Earth.

One of the themes of this peace conference is the restoration of the environment. Many of our resources have been ravaged and depleted, including our most precious elements of water and air. Even the ozone layer that protects our planet has been damaged. If this trend continues, our children will one day face unavoidable self- destruction.

The gravest victim of selfishness, however, is the human family. The family is the basic building block of any nation; each family constitutes one cell of society. Using the analogy of the human body, if each of the billions of cells is healthy, then the whole person is likewise healthy. Conversely, if enough cells are weakened or destroyed, then the entire body becomes diseased and eventually ceases to function. Therefore, the breakdown of the true family system indicates that the destruction of humankind may not be far off. Our society is heading in a direction completely opposite to that originally purposed by God.

Just five years ago from now, we will mark the dawning of the 21st century. That is destined to be the time when we can return to the original world of God's will. A civilization where spirit and mind are master will emerge.

It is my sincere hope that as we move into the next millennium, the developing nations will not follow in the footsteps of the so-called developed nations. Rather, they should learn from the experience of the wealthy countries and avoid the traps of materialism and selfish nationalism. They can then move directly into a world where spirit and mind reign supreme. This is the point I emphasized repeatedly during my speaking tour in Latin America.

We have reached a point in history where the world is about to undergo great changes. In religious terms, we say that we have reached the last days. However, by that I am not referring to days of darkness and destruction. From the point of view of God, the Creator, it means the end of the wrong world-the fallen, selfish world. This world of evil will be turned inside out by the founding of the true love of goodness-the original world of God's creation. Therefore, the last days are actually the desire and hope of us all.

How, then, can we realize this historic transition from a materialistic civilization to a spiritually-oriented civilization? It is realized through the truth. Right now a sun is rising in the heavens bringing the brilliant light of truth to humanity, bright enough to complete the transformation of the old world. We refer to this light as the Unification Principle, the great principle of true love.

As a youth, I was called upon by God to investigate the great principles of the universe. As I searched, through prayer and study, I came to discover the great truth humankind has been seeking throughout history, and the great Principle through which all humanity can return to true love and consummate true world peace.

A physician needs to diagnose the precise cause of an illness to cure the patient. Likewise, the Principle clearly points to the reason human society fell into misery. It reveals the course of the human fall, which led to the unprincipled world with which we struggle everyday.

Once the cause has been diagnosed, the life-saving prescription can be applied. For the last forty years, I have anxiously traveled the globe with this prescription and devoted myself to sharing it with the world.

If we do indeed live for eternity, then clearly our priorities in life need to be reorganized. I wish to share with this august gathering some of this great principles, but, really, to do this is only to scratch the surface. It is not possible for anyone to grasp in depth the implications in such a short time frame. One needs to study the Unification Principle sincerely, with time and prayer.

The first great principle teaches that God is a living God, and that He is the Parent of humankind. In other words, the relationship between God and humanity is that of Father and children. This was the first truth that God revealed to me.

Secondly, God's original personality is true love, and He created all things and humankind to fulfill His true love. The human race is therefore the object-being of God. God wants to pour unlimited true love into the hearts of His children unconditionally.

Thirdly, as His substantial entity on the earth, God the invisible Parent established True Parents to save the world. People, all people, can be eternally restored by regaining true love, true life and true lineage. They do this by achieving perfect unity with the ideals of the True Parents.

Amazingly, we are now living in the longed-for era of True Parents. There has been and will never be again a time of this magnitude of blessing in human history. We are thus the generation born with the greatest fortune.

Two days from now, on August 25, here in Seoul, Mrs. Moon and I, in the capacity of the True Parents, will officiate at an International Holy Wedding ceremony for 360,000 couples. I call this event a ceremony for true world peace. As we stated earlier, the lack of world peace today stems from the breakdown of the family structure. A family not united with the true love of God can in no way be called a family of true love.

This holy wedding ceremony, which will be simultaneously conducted in 160 nations via satellite, is a ceremony that will vertically connect humankind in true love with the True Parents-the substantial being of God, who is the invisible Parent. This ceremony also links the participants into horizontal brotherhood transcending territorial boundaries, races and religions. It is a ceremony of transformation for humankind, restoring God's true love, true life and true blood lineage lost at the fall of the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve.

This is therefore a moment of great excitement! Humankind which has been suffering under the dominion of Satan for 6,000 biblical years will be set free for the first time. It is a ceremony of great joy and liberation. Humanity may now return with cries of "Hosanna!" to the Kingdom of God's true love. This ceremony is possible at this time because of the appearance of True Parents.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Blessing is also the ceremony through which a man and woman, bound in marriage before God, can bow purity and fidelity to each other. The breakdown of the family is a result of the misuse of love. Since immoral love was the cause of the fall of our ancestors, then we who are their descendants have been the unwitting victims of the same immoral, promiscuous love. It is a worldwide phenomenon manifested in free sex, homosexuality and decadent relationships. I think it is no exaggeration to say that today's promiscuity resembles the animal world. The time has come for humankind to return to the world of pure unselfish love by completely liberating fallen humankind from its false ancestors, and the ones called to liberate this world are the True Parents.

In the blessing, the bride pledges unblemished love to her bridegroom, recognizing him as God's son, representative of all men of the world. The bridegroom pledges his absolute, faithful love to his bride, accepting her as God's daughter, representative of all women of the world.

Could a dreadful disease like AIDS penetrate a marriage in which the couple is united in this way? AIDS is a test of the last days to measure the purity and fidelity of humankind. Modern society tries to prevent AIDS through the use of condoms. It attempts to cure it through developing new medicines, but it is making these attempts in ignorance of the original ideal of God. AIDS is not a problem that can be solved through purely scientific means. Its ultimate solution lies in the restoration of morality and restoration of true love.

A research institute at Harvard University recently issued a report projecting that by the year 2010, AIDS will have infected about one billion people! Such staggering numbers threaten the very existence of the human race.

AIDS can only be eradicated when we return to the true love desired by God. Simply speaking, that is the pure and faithful family love. When I speak of fidelity, I do not mean the traditional fidelity applied only to women. I refer to the purity and fidelity of both men and women, based on God's ideal of true monogamous love.

This principle allows men and women to protect the sanctity and holiness of the act of love by not engaging in premarital or extramarital relations. After being blessed with their ideal counterpart, husband and wife love one another without limit as subject and object.

Today, I want to stress purity and fidelity even more for men than for women. It is not an overstatement to say that the damage caused by men who indulge in uncontrolled lust has almost destroyed humankind's chances for happiness.

Human will power alone is not enough in today's decadent world to return to the original order of true love as desired by God. We may only return through the power of our Heavenly Father, and His power is manifested by the True Parents on earth.

A new order based on true love cannot be established without a revolutionary process. The True Parents of humankind have come to ignite the peaceful revolution of true love. The International Holy Wedding is fanning the flames of the revolution of true love and providing the opportunity for the re-creation or restoration of the world.

The blessing ceremony of August 25 will embrace 360,000 couples. When this number increases to 3,600,000 couples, to 36 million couples, to 360 million couples, and to 3.6 billion couples, AIDS will be eradicated from human society. The world of pure love where God and man become one will be realized. This is not just a dream. The fulfillment of God's providence for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is destined to come about because it is not the work of man alone, but the work of God.

Modern technology has brought the world in touch a global village and humankind is the global family living in this village. We should never have been divided by the political borders, or by different races or religions. Only the ideal world of true love between God and man meant to have existed. I conclude by reminding you that the meaning of true world peace is to return to the original world of God's creation.

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