Rosary Touted as "Weapon" for Peace

In a front-page story, L'Osservatore Romano described the Palestinian attack on an Israeli bus as a "New Killing Against Peace." The attack left 14 dead, including two assailants, and more than 50 wounded.

"The massacre makes more urgent John Paul II's appeal to take the rosary again between one's hands with confidence," reads the subtitle of the banner headline in the Italian edition dated Wednesday.

The Al Qods Brigades, the armed branch of Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for the car bomb attack at the crossroads of Karkur, in the southern border of Pardes Hanna.

"Another massacre has been perpetrated by the enemies of peace," the Vatican paper says. "Following a clear strategy of death, the extremists have struck once again, while international diplomacy is committed to the attempt to relaunch the dialogue."

"The continuous mourning, on one side and the other, makes the renewal of negotiations increasingly difficult," the article adds.

In this kind of crisis, the rosary must become "a poor and powerful weapon that each day builds authentic peace," the article concludes.