A ‘just peace’ for the Middle East

“May the Lord lead us to a just peace” between the Palestinian and the Israeli peoples. Let us not forget martyred Ukraine and let us pray for all nations at war. This was Pope Francis’ appeal during the General Audience on Wednesday morning, 8 November.

On a beautiful sunny day, the Pontiff asked the faithful present in Saint Peter’s Square, to remember all “peoples suffering the consequences of war”, and to pray for them. “There is so much suffering”, he said. “Children are suffering; the sick are suffering, and many young people are dying”. As he concluded, the Pope reiterated that “war is always a defeat”.

Earlier Pope Francis had continued his catechesis on apostolic zeal, reflecting on the Servant of God, Madeleine Delbrêl, a 20th-century French social worker, writer and mystic. After a period of agnosticism in her youth, Madeleine encountered Christ through the witness of her friends and, following her conversion, chose to live a life completely devoted to God. Madeleine was deeply moved by the plight of the poor and the anguish of those struggling to find meaning in life. She saw this as an urgent summons to reawaken missionary fervour in the Church of our day. For over three decades, she lived, prayed and worked among the poor in the peripheries of Paris.

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