For peace, which is urged in many parts of the world, the Holy Father announced a day of fasting and prayer for October 7, the first anniversary of the attack on Israel by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas.
Pope Francis asked everyone to participate, from church members to believers to people who do not consider themselves believers but want peace.
"I am asking everyone to participate in this dramatic hour of our history, while the winds of war and the flames of violence are constantly sweeping entire peoples and nations with them," said the head of the Catholic Church when announcing the day of peace dedicated to fasting and prayer on the opening day of the Synod of Bishops taking place in the Vatican on Wednesday.
Pope Francis called for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, as well as in all the Palestinian territories and Israel.
On October 6, the Pope and the bishops pray the rosary in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, with which they ask for the intercession of the Virgin Mary for peace.
Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has spoken of a "piecemeal Third World War", referring to armed conflicts taking place simultaneously in many parts of the world.
On September 7, 2013, the Holy Father led a prayer for peace in St. Peter's Square to stop the war in Syria and the conflicts in the Middle East. He announced a day of prayer for peace to end the war in Congo and South Sudan, in 2020 he prayed for Lebanon and in 2021 for Afghanistan.
Following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, on March 25, 2022, the Pope offered Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary.
During his visit to Belgium at the end of September, Pope Francis said that the world is on the brink of World War III. He called the forgetting of the historical past a dangerous loss of memory, which "makes nations sick and leads them into adventures demanding a huge human price."
The Italian Episcopal College (Cei) was the first to join the prayers for October 6 and 7, which had already been announced in the churches.
"Every day, the ongoing Third World War expands with new and new battlefields, which affect many places and peoples, often accompanied by complete oblivion. We must not get tired of asking for the guns to fall silent, hate to be replaced by love, division by unity. It's time to stop the madness of war: everyone should do their part, everyone should be a worker of peace," said Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of CEI, who also works as Pope Francis' extraordinary envoy for peace to stop the war between Ukraine and Russia.
MTI
Cover image source: Facebook/Vatican News
