Pope Francis prays for the world

As customary on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, on Thursday morning, 8 December, Pope Francis travelled to Piazza di Spagna in Rome to pray before the Column of the Immaculate Conception and lay a bouquet of white roses at its base. “I bring you the thanks and supplications of all your children, near and far”, he said, with tears in his eyes as he prayed for peace in the world.

“I would have liked to have brought to you today the thanksgiving of the Ukrainian people for the peace we have long been asking the Lord for”, the Holy Father prayed. “Instead, I still have to present to you the supplication of the children, of the elderly, of the fathers and mothers, of the young people of that tormented land”.

Earlier, the Holy Father had paused in prayer before the Salus Populi Romani icon in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major.

See next week for full coverage of the Solemnity’s events.