Saying terrorism, war solve nothing, pope prays for peace

"War is a defeat,” Pope Francis insisted as he called for prayers for peace in Israel and Palestine.

Speaking to thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 8 for the recitation of the Angelus prayer, the pope said he is following events in Israel and Gaza “with apprehension and sorrow.”

A day earlier, militants in Gaza launched a massive attack on southern Israel, firing rockets and breaching the border.

“The violence has exploded even more ferociously, causing hundreds of deaths and casualties,” the pope told people gathered for the midday Sunday prayer. By the time he spoke, Israeli officials were reporting at least 250 people had been killed and officials in Gaza said the death toll among Palestinians was over 300.

“I express my closeness to the families and victims,” Pope Francis said. “I am praying for them and for all who are living hours of terror and anguish.”

“May the attacks and weapons cease,” he said. “Please!”

“And let it be understood that terrorism and war do not lead to any resolutions, but only to the death and suffering of so many innocent people,” Pope Francis said. “War is a defeat! Let us pray that there be peace in Israel and in Palestine.”

During October, the month traditionally devoted to the rosary, the pope asked Catholics to pray for Mary’s intercession “for the gift peace in the many countries throughout the world marked by war and conflicts. And let us continue to remember the dear Ukraine, which suffers so much every day, which is so battered.”

On Oct. 9, at a Divine Liturgy to participants in the Synod of Bishops’ assembly, all members of the Catholic Church, from bishops to laypeople, must be formed in a “synodal spirituality” which will guide the church forward, a cardinal said. “The laborers of the harvest are bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, the lay baptized; all need to be formed in a synodal way of proceeding” as a church, Cardinal Béchara Raï, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, said in his homily. “It is a formation toward a way of life of communion, mission and participation,” he said, as well as “to a synodal spirituality which is at the heart of the church’s renewal.”

“Communion is the beauty of diversity in unity. In a modern world that tends toward both homogenizing and fracturing, communion is a language of beauty, a harmony of unity and plurality,” said Anna Rowlands, a professor of Catholic social thought and practice at Durham University in England.

The Divine Liturgy, presided over by Melkite Catholic Patriarch Joseph Absi, was celebrated in the Byzantine rite at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica, as synod participants were about to begin the assembly’s second module, focusing on the theme of communion and the question, “How can we be more fully a sign and instrument of union with God and of the unity of all humanity?”

“All are invited to be part of the church,” Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the synod, said. “In deep communion with his father through the Holy Spirit, Jesus extended this communion to all the sinners. Are we ready to do the same? Are we ready to do this with groups which might irritate us because their way of being might seem to threaten our identity?”

        – VATICAN CITY (CNS)