Pope remembers Fr Pierre, hoping ‘that the blood he shed be a seed of peace for beloved Lebanon’
During today’s general audience in St Peter's Square before some 15,000 faithful, Leo XIV remembered the Maronite priest killed in an Israeli attack. He “was a true shepherd,” said the pope, who called on everyone to pray for peace in Iran and the Middle East, and for all the civilian victims, especially the children. In his catechesis on Lumen Gentium, he stressed that, “the Church is one but includes everyone.”
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – At the end of today's general audience in St Peter's Square, Pope Leo XIV remembered Fr Pierre el-Raii, a Maronite priest killed two days ago in an Israeli attack in Qlayaa, a village in southern Lebanon. His funeral “is being celebrated” today, and “I am close to all the Lebanese people at this time of grave trial,” the pontiff said.
Together with other parish priests, Father el-Raii refused to leave the area, amid the "tragedy of war", after Israel issued an evacuation order.
“In Arabic, ‘El Raii’ means ‘the shepherd’, Leo said. “Father Pierre was a true shepherd, who always stayed beside his people, with the love and sacrifice of Jesus the Good Shepherd. As soon as he heard that some parishioners had been wounded in a bombing, he rushed to help them without hesitation. May the Lord grant that the blood he shed be a seed of peace for beloved Lebanon.” The pope visited the country in his first apostolic visit in December 2025.
“Dear brothers and sisters, let us continue to pray for peace in Iran and throughout the Middle East, especially for the many civilian victims, including many innocent children. May our prayer be a comfort to those who suffer and a seed of hope for the future,” the pope said.
At the end of the catechesis, part of the cycle on the Documents of the Second Vatican Council on the constitution Lumen gentium, which was read at the beginning, Leo stated that at a time “traversed by so many conflicts and wars”, the Church is “a great sign of hope” because it “is a people in which women and men of different nationalities, languages and cultures live together in faith”.
The Church “is a sign placed in the very heart of humanity, a reminder and prophecy of that unity and peace to which God the Father calls all his children,” he added.
Today's catechesis, which Leo read before 15,000 faithful under a light rain in St Peter’s Square, was titled in fact "The Church, people of God." The pope focused on the second chapter.
“God [. . . ] carries out his work of salvation in history, choosing a real people and dwelling among them. For this reason, He calls Abraham and promises him descendants as numerous as the stars”. His chosen people is “called to become a light for other nations, like a beacon that will draw all peoples, the whole of humanity, to itself,” the pope added.
As the Council asserted, this was “done by way of preparation and as a figure of that new and perfect covenant”, which had to be fulfilled with Jesus Christ. “Indeed, it is Christ who, in giving His Body and His Blood, unites this people in Himself and in a definitive way”.
The Church is “the people of God who draw their existence from the body of Christ and who are themselves the body of Christ; not a people like any other, but the People of God, called together by Him and made up of women and men from all the peoples of the earth,” Leo explained. Her unifying principle is “faith in Christ”.
Ultimately, “We are in the Church in order to receive life from the Father unceasingly and to live as His children and brothers and sisters among ourselves. Consequently, the law that animates relationships in the Church is love, as we receive and experience it in Jesus; and her goal is the Kingdom of God, towards which she walks together with all humanity.”
What is more, “in the Church there is, and there must be, a place for everyone”; indeed, “the Church is one but includes everyone,” Leo said.
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24/09/2025 16:23
