VATICAN CITY, JAN. 30, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is encouraging concrete projects to bring peace in the Holy Land in this time of great change in the Middle East.
The Pope made this exhortation today after he had prayed the midday Angelus with thousands who had gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
As part of his traditional meeting with the faithful today, the Holy Father marked the last Sunday of January, the month of peace. Two young people from Catholic Action — an adolescent girl and a boy — joined him at the window of his study from where he prays the Angelus and the trio released two doves.
Today the International Day of Intercession for Peace in the Holy Land is also celebrated.
The Pope said that he was joining with the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Fouad Twal, and the Franciscan custodian of the Holy Land, Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, to ask “everyone to pray to the Lord that he bring minds and hearts together in concrete peace projects.”
What’s to come?
Father Pizzaballa spoke to Vatican Radio about peace in the Middle East, and particularly the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt in recent weeks.
He said he is following the news “with great surprise, mixed with expectation and concern: expectation for what might happen, because these are changes that we all recognize as epochal.”
“None of us would have imagined such things a few months ago,” the Franciscan reflected. “This means that there are forces, above all in the Arab world, that have now found an external visible expression.
“This is surely a positive sign, but also worrisome because we do not know how all of this will end,” he added. “We hope that there is the least amount of violence and bloodshed possible and we hope that respect for the religious minorities will continue.”
