Pope Francis Offers Prayers for Victims of Moscow Attack and Martyred Ukraine - Support Christian Hope with Aleteia

2024-03-24 13:51:49
Sunday March 24, 2024, at the end of Palm Sunday Mass, the Pope reacted to the attack which took place two days earlier in Moscow, assuring his prayers for the victims. He also had a thought for “the martyred Ukraine” where “so many people are without electricity” because of recent attacks on infrastructure.

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Pope Francis spoke at the end of the Palm Sunday Mass celebrated in Saint Peter’s Square to offer his prayers to the victims of the “cowardly attack in Moscow”. Friday evening, a terrorist attack claimed by the Islamic State organization left at least 133 dead in a concert hall. “May the Lord welcome [les victimes] in his peace and comfort their families. And may he convert the hearts of those who protect, organize and carry out these inhuman actions which offend God, who has commanded: ‘You shall not kill’,” the pope confided.

In another appeal, the head of the Catholic Church asked the 60,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square to pray for all those “suffering because of war.” The Argentine pontiff had special attention to “the martyred Ukraine, where so many people find themselves without electricity” due to the intensity of recent attacks on infrastructure.

“In addition to causing death and suffering,” these attacks “carry the risk of an even greater humanitarian catastrophe,” the pontiff warned. In recent days, electrical installations in Ukraine have been targeted by the Russian army, leaving for example Kharkiv, the country’s second city, without electricity.

Also mentioning “Gaza, which suffers so much”, and “so many other places of war”, the pope also addressed his support to the “peace community of San José de Apartadó”, present in Colombia, where a woman was murdered. young woman and a young man a few days ago. The Pope recalled that this community was rewarded in 2018 for its commitment to the solidarity economy, peace and human rights.

At the end of the mass, during which the pontiff chose not to deliver the homily, Pope Francis traveled extensively through the aisles of Saint Peter’s Square in a popemobile to greet the many faithful present in Rome for the Holy Week.