On Saturday Pope Francis will lead thousands in St Peter’s Square in a prayer vigil for peace.
During his Angelus address on Sunday, Pope Francis said: “We will
gather in prayer and in a spirit of penance, invoking God’s great gift
of peace upon the beloved nation of Syria and upon each situation of
conflict and violence around the world. Humanity needs to see these
gestures of peace and to hear words of hope and peace.”
The vigil will include a recital of the rosary, eucharistic
adoration, Scripture readings, a papal blessing and remarks by Pope
Francis, said the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi.
During the event, which will last from 7 p.m.-11 p.m, priests will be
available to hear confessions.
For all Catholics, the Pope has proclaimed Saturday a “day of fasting
and prayer for peace in Syria, the Middle East and throughout the
world.” On fast days, adult Catholics in good health are expected to eat
only one full meal.
The Pope said he was inviting everyone, “including our non-Catholic
Christian brothers, followers of other religions and all men of good
will, to participate, in whatever way they can, in this initiative.”
According to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the
Evangelisation of Peoples, Syria’s Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun,
leader of the country’s Sunni Muslims, has approached the papal nuncio
in Damascus, Syria, with a request to attend the Rome vigil.
Even if that trip proves impossible to arrange, Fides reported, the
mufti has called on his followers to pray for peace, “in communion and
simultaneously with the Pope.”
Obama has called for military strikes to punish the government of
Syrian President Bashar Assad, which the U.S. blames for a chemical weapons attack near Damascus that reportedly killed more than 1,400
people, including children on August 21.
Over the last two-and-a-half years, according to the United Nations, a
civil war between Assad’s government and rebel forces has killed more
than 100,000 people, driven 2 million refugees out of Syria and
displaced another 4.5 million inside the country.
Pope Francis said he condemned the use of chemical weapons “with
utmost firmness,” adding that “those terrible images from recent days
are burned into my mind and heart.”
“A judgment of God and also a judgment of history upon our actions are inescapable,” he said. But the Pope insisted that “never has the use of violence brought peace in its wake. War begets war, violence begets violence.”
Instead, Pope Francis called on all parties to “follow the path of encounter and negotiation and so overcome blind conflict.”
Bishop Mario Toso, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice
and Peace, told Vatican Radio Sept. 2 that a “solution to Syria’s
problems cannot be that of armed intervention. The situation of violence
would not be diminished. On the contrary, there is the risk that it
will explode and extend to other countries.”
The Secretariat of State has invited foreign ambassadors accredited
to the Holy See to attend a Vatican briefing on Syria on Thursday.
- From Catholic Herald UK
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