Leo XIV prays for success in peace efforts and aid to Asia's flood victims
In his Angelus address delivered from Castel Gandolfo, the Pope asks urges that ongoing negotiations “place the common good of peoples first”. Prayers for the victims of the violent floods in Pakistan, India and Nepal. In his homily during Mass with a group of poor people and Caritas Albano: in a “Church of the poor [...] no distinction between those who help and those who are helped”.
Castel Gandolfo (AsiaNews) - 'Let us pray that efforts to end wars and promote peace will be successful. May the common good of peoples always be at the forefront of negotiations.‘ Today, after reciting the Angelus in Piazza della Libertà in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo XIV once again turned his gaze to the violence gripping the world and to the peoples affected.
As he did two days ago in the same place, he asked people not to resign themselves to the ’logic of conflict and weapons."
The prayer that the ‘efforts’ for peace may lead to a ‘good’ result comes after the mid-August meeting in Alaska between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. The meeting did not lead to any ceasefire or immediate agreement in the war being fought in Ukraine, and international reactions have been mixed. Tomorrow, Volodymyr Zelensky and the US president will meet in Washington.
The Pope's thoughts today are also for the effects of the violent ‘calamities’ that are currently striking South Asia with particular ferocity. ‘Dear brothers and sisters, I am close to the people of Pakistan, India and Nepal, affected by violent floods,’ said the pontiff.
In north-western Pakistan alone, especially in the mountainous province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, more than 300 people have lost their lives after two days of heavy rain and flash floods. ‘I pray for the victims and their families and for all those who are suffering,’ he added.
In his homily during the 9:30 a.m. Mass in Albano, at the Shrine of St. Mary of the Rotunda—attended by poor people assisted by workers from the diocesan Caritas—Leone XIV emphasised the surprise that can be felt when reading today's Gospel (Lk 12:49-53).
Jesus says: ‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but division’ (Lk 12:51). "Dear friends, the world accustoms us to exchange peace for comfort, good for tranquillity. For this reason, in order that his peace, God's shalom, may come among us, Jesus must say to us: “I have come to cast fire upon the earth,”‘ said Pope Leo.
Baptism, too is a ’total immersion in the risks that love entails, he continued, "Mass nourishes the decision to no longer live for ourselves, to bring fire into the world."
It is not the fire of weapons, of destruction, or “of words that incinerate others”. But the 'fire of love, which lowers itself and serves, which opposes indifference with care and arrogance with meekness; the fire of goodness, which does not cost as much as weapons, but freely renews the world. It may cost misunderstanding, ridicule, even persecution, but there is no greater peace than to have its flame within us.‘ In short, a salvific flame.
For this reason, Pope Leo thanked all those in the diocese of Albano who carry ’the fire of charity."
‘I encourage you not to distinguish between those who assist and those who are assisted, between those who seem to give and those who seem to receive, between those who appear poor and those who feel they offer time, skills, help,’ he told them.
‘We are the Church of the Lord, a Church of the poor, all precious, all subjects, each bearing a unique Word of God. Each one is a gift to others. Let us break down the walls.’
Thanks go to those who facilitate ‘the encounter between people of different origins, economic, psychological and emotional situations: only together, only by becoming one Body in which even the most fragile participate in full dignity, are we the Body of Christ, the Church of God,’ said the Pope from Castel Gandolfo.
This unity is achieved ‘when the fire that Jesus came to bring burns away the prejudices, prudence and fears that still marginalise those who bear the poverty of Christ written in their history.’
After the recitation of the Angelus, the Pope had lunch at Borgo Laudato Si', in the gardens of the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo. He will share the meal with poor people welcomed by the diocese of Albano.
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