Pope’s prayer intention for the month of April

As the Church marks 60 years since Pope Saint John xxiii published his Encyclical Pacem in Terris, in the prayer intention for the month of April, Pope Francis calls on Christians to pray for a non-violent culture. In this month’s “Pope Video” the Holy Father recalls that “war is madness” which is “beyond reason”, adding that “any war, any armed confrontation, always ends in defeat for all”.

Pope Francis contrasts a conflictual mentality with one based on non-violence. “Living, speaking, and acting without violence is not surrendering, losing or giving up anything, but aspiring to everything,” he says.

Everyone, adds the Pope, is called to “develop a culture of peace”. Non-violence, he says, can offer a guide for our actions, “both in daily life and in international relations”. He adds that “even in cases of self-defense, peace is the ultimate goal”, and that “a lasting peace can exist only without weapons”.

He concludes with an invitation to “pray for a more widespread culture of non-violence,” which, he explains, “will progress when countries and citizens alike resort less and less to the use of arms”.

The video features scenes of destruction from various wars currently marring the world, along with the black-and-white portraits of advocates of peace.

Available online at www.thepopevideo.org and translated into 23 languages, the video for the prayer intention for April was created and produced by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, in cooperation with La Machi Agency and the Dicastery for Communication.