“All too many conflicts are presently in course. To leaders of nations we say: let us work together to create a new architecture of peace. Let us join forces to promote life, health, education and peace." Francis: "God will ask for an account, from those who have not sought peace or have fomented tensions and conflicts".
The international meeting ‘No One Is Saved Alone – Peace and Fraternity’ began in Rome today with separate prayers by representatives of different religions. “Thinking only of ourselves: this is the father of all evils,” said Francis. “This is a great temptation. It spares no one, including us Christians. The temptation to think only of saving ourselves and our own circle. To focus only on our own problems and interests, as if nothing else mattered. It is a very human instinct, but wrong.”
Sri Lanka’s former intelligence chief reveals that the services had prior knowledge of the attacks of 21 April 2019 against churches and hotels, which left about 280 people dead and almost 600 more wounded. Foreign embassies and intelligence services had also been informed. The then president Sirisena was warned of the danger of the Islamist group blamed for the attacks.
At the international meeting ‘No one is saved alone. Peace and Fraternity’, the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople calls upon the world to overcome fundamentalisms and ideologies to rediscover the world as a "common home" as well as humans and reality as a "mirror" of God. This represent real "subversion,” ending the “absolute domination of human beings over the entire universe,” signalling the birth of "ecology as a sign of the presence of the divine in creation.”
Banned from his homeland, the head of the Catholic Church in Belarus is now in exile in Poland. During his visit to Rome, he met with Secretary of State Card Parolin and Secretary for Relations with States Bishop Gallagher. The latter visited Belarus in September to get President Lukashenko to allow the return of the metropolitan.
The White House has sent an important official to talk with Syrian authorities in order to secure the release of two Americans. For some, this is the first contact after many years, but others note that two other meetings did occur previously. For the Syrian government, the withdrawal of US troops is a precondition to talks. Fr Kassar notes that Card Zenari is one of the few people who remembers the tragedy of ordinary people who have to wait in line for hours to buy bread, and have no fuel for the winter. For them, COVID-19 is one of many problems.
