[ad_1]
Pope Francis met this Saturday, July 7, the Patriarchs and the heads of the Eastern, Catholic and Orthodox Churches of the Italian city of Bari during an ecumenical meeting to pray for peace in the Middle East and analyze the situation After venerating the relics of Saint Nicholas, a saint of particular importance to Christians of the East and the West, and to pray the maritime promenade of Bari, the Holy Father and the Patriarchs met in camera to discuss issues facing Christians in the Middle East.
At the end of the meeting, the Pontiff delivered a few words in which he asked the international community for a greater commitment to end the war in the Middle East.
Below, the full text of Pope Francis' message:
I am very grateful for this meeting that we had the grace to live. We have helped to rediscover our presence as Christians in the Middle East. And it will be all the more prophetic as it will manifest itself to Jesus, the Prince of Peace (cf Is 9,5). He does not brandish the sword, but asks his people to put it back in the sheath (Jn 18,11).
Our way of being a church is also tempted by the logic of the world, the logic of power and profit, the rushed logic and convenience. And there is our sin, the inconsistency between faith and life, which obscures the testimony.
We feel once again that we must convert to the gospel, guarantee genuine freedom, and do it urgently now, in the Middle East night. agony As in the agonizing night of Gethsemane, it will not be the flight (Mt 26,56) or the sword (see Mt 26,52) that anticipates the dawning dawn of Easter, but the gift of self in imitation of the Lord.
The good news of Jesus, crucified and resurrected from love, which comes to us from the countries of the Middle East, has conquered the heart of man through the centuries because he did not Is not related to the powers of the world, but to the unarmed strength of the Cross. The Gospel obliges us to daily conversion to God's plans, to find only safety and consolation, to announce it to all and in spite of everything.
The faith of simple people, so deeply rooted in the Middle East, is the source in which we must be satiated and purified, as we do when we return to the origins, as pilgrims to Jerusalem, to Earth Holy or in the sanctuaries of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and other sacred places of this region.
Encouraging each other, we discussed fraternally. This has been a sign that meeting and unity must always be sought without fear of differences. Then also peace: we must cultivate it also in the arid lands of oppositions, because today, in spite of everything, there is no possible alternative to peace. Peace will not come thanks to the truces supported by the walls and the tests of strength, but by the real desire to listen and to dialogue.
We pledge to walk, pray and work, and we crave the art of encountering the clash, that the ostentation of the threatening signs of power give way to the power of the signs of evil. Hope: men of good will and different beliefs who are not afraid to talk to each other, accept the reasons of others and take care of each other. Only then, taking care that nobody lacks bread and work, dignity and hope, the cries of war will be transformed into songs of peace.
For this it is essential that those who have power become determined and without further delay to the true service of peace and not of his own interests. Enough of the benefit of a few to the detriment of the skin of many! Enough land occupations that tear people apart! Enough with the prevalence of partial truths to the detriment of people's hopes! Enough to use the Middle East to get benefits outside the Middle East!
War is the scourge that tragically besets this beloved region. Who suffers is especially the poor. Think of Syria martyred. War is the daughter of power and poverty. It is overcome by renouncing the logic of supremacy and eradicating misery. Many conflicts have also been fomented by forms of fundamentalism and fanaticism that, disguised as religious pretexts, have blasphemed the name of God, which is peace, and have persecuted the brother who has always lived next door.
Violence always feeds on weapons. You can not raise your voice to talk about peace while secretly pursuing rearmament races. It is a very serious responsibility that weighs on the conscience of nations, especially the most powerful ones.
Let's not forget the last century, let's not leave out the lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, do not turn the lands of the East of peace, into the dark expanses of silence. Enough stubborn opposition, enough of the thirst for profit, which does not stop in front of anyone to hoard gas and fuel deposits, without concern for the common and unscrupulous house in which the market of the 39 energy dictates the law of coexistence between peoples.
That, to open the roads of peace, the eyes turn to those who ask to live fraternally with others. May the presence of all be protected, not only those who are in the majority. That the way to the right to a common citizenship, a way for a renewed future, is also widely open to the Middle East. Christians are also and must be citizens with a complete title, with the same rights.
Deeply anxious, but never deprived of hope, we look to Jerusalem, a city for all peoples, a unique and sacred city for Christians, Jews and Muslims around the world, whose identity and the vocation must be preserved beyond the various conflicts and tensions, and whose status quo demands that it be respected in accordance with the deliberations of the international community and formulated several times by the Christian communities of the Holy Land
Only a negotiated solution between Israelis and Palestinians, strongly desired and promoted by the Commonwealth of Nations, can lead to a stable and lasting peace, and ensure the coexistence of two states for two peoples
It has the faces of children. In the Middle East, for years, a scary number of children are crying because of violent deaths in their families and their homeland is threatened, often with the only possibility of having to flee.
It is the death of hope. Too many children have spent most of their lives seeing debris in their schools rather than at school, hearing the muffled roar of bombs instead of the festive bustle. games. May humanity, I beg you, listen to the cry of children whose mouth proclaims the glory of God (see Ps. 8.3). It is only by drying their tears that the world will find its dignity.
Thinking about the children, we will soon be launching, with some pigeons, our desire for peace. May the desire for peace rise higher than any black cloud. May our hearts remain united and return to heaven, hoping that, as in the times of the flood, the tender sprouting of hope will return (see Gen 8:11). And that the Middle East is no longer an arc of war stretched between continents, but an ark of peace for the people and beliefs.
Well-beloved Middle East, let the darkness of war, power, darkness disappear. violence, fanaticism, unfair advantages, exploitation, poverty, inequality and lack of recognition of rights. "May peace descend on you" (Ps 122,8), in you justice, on you descend the blessing of God.
[ad_2]
Source link
