By LifeSiteNews (Politics) | Created at 2024-09-30 15:41:31 | Updated at 2024-09-30 23:45:01
8 hours ago
Mon Sep 30, 2024 - 11:30 am EDT
JERUSALEM (LifeSiteNews) — Jerusalem’s Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa has called for a day of fasting, prayer, and penance on October 7, in a renewed bid for peace in the region.
In a public statement released in recent days, Pizzaballa once again renewed his persistent call for peace in the Holy Land, following the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas and subsequent considerable Israeli armed response.
The region, he said, “has been plunged into a vortex of violence and hatred never seen or experienced before.” Referencing the “intensity and impact of the tragedies” in the past year, the cardinal said such scenes had “deeply lacerated our conscience and our sense of humanity.”
Violence, which has caused and is causing thousands of innocent victims, has also found its way into political and social language and actions. It has struck a profound blow to the common feeling of belonging to the Holy Land, to the consciousness of being part of a plan of Providence that wanted us here to build together His Kingdom of peace and justice, and not to make it instead a reservoir of hatred and contempt, of mutual rejection and annihilation.
Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, has repeatedly called for peace in the region in the wake of the raging conflict, and has fast become an internationally recognizable figure since last October. He has been publicly critical of military actions by both Israel and Hamas, issuing a mid-October call for people to pray and fast during a time of “political and military crisis” and “unprecedented violence.”
Pizzaballa previously stated last year that “it is only by ending decades of occupation and its tragic consequences, as well as giving a clear and secure national perspective to the Palestinian people that a serious peace process can begin.”
Echoing this initiative for peace, Pizzaballa now renewed his call “on those in authority and those who bear the grave responsibility of making decisions in this context, to a commitment to justice and respect for every person’s right to freedom, dignity and peace.”
He highlighted the need to “alleviate the suffering of those affected by this war, and promote every action of peace, reconciliation and encounter.”
As he has often done in the past, Pizzaballa posited the bloody conflict in a spiritual realm, recalling the “need to pray, to bring our pain and our desire for peace to God. We need to convert, to do penance, and to implore forgiveness.”
Consequently, he set aside October 7 as a day of particular prayer and penance:
Therefore, I invite you to a day of prayer, fasting and penance on October 7 next, a date that has become symbolic of the drama we are experiencing. The month of October is also the Marian month and on October 7 we celebrate the memory of Mary Queen of the Rosary.
May each of us, with the rosary or in whatever form he or she sees fit, personally but better again in community, find a moment to pause and pray, and bring to the “merciful Father and God of all consolation” (2 Cor. 1:3), our desire for peace and reconciliation. Attached you will find a prayer proposal, that may be used freely.
He also has published a proposed “prayer for peace,” found on the Patriarchate website.
Made a cardinal on September 30 last year, Pizzaballa was swiftly thrust into the global spotlight just a few days later on October 7. He swiftly made his now famous offer to be exchanged for Israeli hostages held by Hamas and has since been notable for a desire to stay close to his Holy Land flock, cancelling foreign engagements in order to remain in Jerusalem during flare-ups of fighting.
“As pastor of my community I have to do all that is possible to save my people, and to stop this nonsense war,” said Pizzaballa, when asked by this correspondent as to what inspired him to offer himself as an exchange.
Pizzaballa has been based in the Holy Land for over 30 years, since the earliest days of his priesthood. A Franciscan, he served as Custos of the Holy Land from 2004 through April 2016.
In June 2016 he was made apostolic administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, before becoming the Latin Patriarch in 2020 by appointment of Pope Francis.
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