Teachers and parents can help to promote peace by encouraging co-operation rather than competion in the classroom and by giving more time to talking and listening to the children, according to the Justice and Peace Commission.
The commission made the suggestions in a series of points drawn up for Peace Sunday. It also called on parents to keep an eye on the programmes their children watched on television and see whether they were getting "an unbalanced diet of violence".
It added: "Discuss, as a family, giving up some luxury and the pledged giving of a proportion of the family income to CAFOD or another suitable cause."
To teachers it said: "The world needs more peacemakers. Emphasise, especially in histroy lessons, that this is not something weak or soppy but requires great courage." They should demonstrate this with examples like St Francis of Assisi and Martin Luther King, it said.
Parishioners are urged to start thinking now about the preparations for the 1980 National Pastoral Congress and the resources that the Church will need to promote justice and peace effectively.
The commission also suggested that people should read the bishops' statement on peace and disarmament which called for more control of the proliferation of arms.
In a special message to Scottish Catholics, Bishop James Monaghan, president of the Scottish National Commission for Justice and Peace, paid tribute to the work done by the Northern Ireland Peace People, Pax Christi and Amnesty International.