After the catechesis of the General Audience, Francis renewed the exhortation to pray for the people suffering from the various conflicts, remembering in particular the martyred Ukraine and between Israelis and Palestinians. Faced with the pain suffered by children, the elderly, the sick and the young, he made a new appeal: “War is always a defeat: let us not forget.”
Antonella Palermo – Vatican News
Pope Francis asked, once again, at this Wednesday’s General Audience (08/11), to pray for the people suffering from war.
Let us not forget the martyred Ukraine and think about the Palestinian and Israeli people. May the Lord lead us to a just peace. There is a lot of suffering.
War is always a defeat
In his greeting to the Italian-speaking pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square for the General Audience, the Pontiff insistently invoked peace:
Children suffer, the sick suffer, the elderly suffer and many young people die. Let us not forget that war is always a defeat.
Looking at the conflict in the Middle East, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs states that around 15,000 people fled Gaza City last Tuesday (07/11), compared to 5,000 last Monday. and 2 thousand on Sunday. A number that is considered a “sharp increase”. Meanwhile, the Israeli Army killed, overnight, in a targeted air strike, Mohsen Abu Zina, head of Hamas weapons production, a specialist in the development of strategic weapons and rockets. On the war front in Ukraine, G7 foreign ministers declared themselves “united” in their determination to continue providing “strong support” to the country invaded by Russia.
Rid the earth of evil
In his blessing to the Arabic-speaking faithful, the Pope also invoked protection “against all evil” and asked the Lord Jesus, in particular, for a gift:
The courage to act with all those who work on the earth to free it from evil and restore it to its original goodness.
Secularization, not complaining, but witnessing with fraternity
After the catechesis, dedicated to the figure of Madeleine Delbrêl, Francis greeted other groups of pilgrims, including French-speaking pilgrims, in particular members of the National Union of Catholic Family Associations. Then he made an invitation:
Faced with our secularized world, let us not complain, but let us see in it a call to prove our faith and an invitation to communicate the joy of the Gospel to all those who thirst for God. Let us ask the Lord for the grace to witness our faith daily through fraternity and friendship experienced with each person.
Inviting the faithful to become “living stones in the service of the Lord”, the Pope recalled the celebration, on Thursday, November 9, of the liturgical feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran: an anniversary, specified the Bishop of Rome, which should provoke this ardor.
Poland, anniversary of independence: thanking God
Finally, Peter’s Successor mentioned, in his greeting to Polish pilgrims, the imminent anniversary of Poland’s reconquest of independence, which is celebrated on November 11th. “This anniversary encourages you to be grateful to God,” said the Pope, who urged: “Transmit your story to new generations.”
