Vatican City, Mar 3, 2024 / 09:25 am (CNA).
“Enough!” “Stop!” Pope Francis repeated from the window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace on Sunday as he called for Israel and Palestine to reach an agreement for “an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.”
Speaking in his Angelus address on March 3, the pope made an emotional plea for negotiations to reach a deal that both frees the hostages immediately and grants civilians access to humanitarian aid.
“I carry daily in my heart, with sorrow, the suffering of the peoples in Palestine and Israel due to the ongoing hostilities,” the pope said, reflecting on five months of war in Gaza.
“The thousands of dead, the wounded, the displaced, the immense destruction, causes pain, and this with tremendous consequences on the little ones and the defenseless who see their future compromised. I wonder: do you really think you are going to build a better world this way? Do you really think you are going to achieve peace? Enough, please! Let us all say: Stop! Please stop!”
The pope made his appeal as negotiations are underway for a weeks-long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. President Joe Biden said last week that he believed that a ceasefire could go into effect as early as March 4.
The Associated Press reported that Israel has essentially agreed to a six-week ceasefire framework that would include Hamas releasing some of the most vulnerable of the roughly 130 hostages being held in Gaza, citing a senior U.S. official. A response from Hamas is expected as talks resume in Cairo on March 3.
Pope Francis said: “I encourage the continuation of negotiations for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and throughout the region, so that hostages can be freed immediately and return to their anxiously awaiting loved ones, and the civilian population can have safe access to due and urgent humanitarian aid.”
The pope also urged people not to forget “battered Ukraine where so many people are dying every day.”
Francis gave a shout-out to some young Ukrainians in the crowd gathered below in St. Peter’s Square, thanking them for their commitment to helping those who are suffering due to the war.
The Ukrainians took part in a meeting in Rome organized by the Catholic community of Sant’Egidio with the theme, “Overcome evil with good.”
Pope Francis also made an appeal for disarmament, calling it “a moral duty” for the international community.
“How many resources are wasted on military expenditures, which, because of the current situation, sadly continue to increase,” he said, noting that March 5 will mark the second International Disarmament and Nonproliferation Awareness Day.
“I sincerely hope that the international community understands that disarmament is first and foremost a duty; disarmament is a moral duty,” he added. “This requires courage on the part of all members of the great family of nations to move from the balance of fear to the balance of trust.”
In his reflection on Sunday’s Gospel, Pope Francis spoke about Jesus driving the merchants out of the temple. The pope focused on the difference between “the house of God” and a marketplace.
One goes to “the house of God” to encounter the Lord and to be close to Him, whereas in a market prices are negotiated and “one seeks one’s own interests.”
“The invitation today, also for our Lenten journey, is to build a greater sense of home and less of a sense of ‘a market’ in ourselves and around us,” Pope Francis said.
“First of all, towards God. How? By praying a lot, like children who knock confidently at the Father’s door without getting tired, and not like greedy and distrustful merchants. And then by spreading fraternity. There is a great need for it.”
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To anyone who takes this seriously – please go to http://www.memri.org and spend some time there and THEN tell me that Hamas can be trusted. They have stated – over and over and over – that they will settle for nothing less than the total destruction of the state of Israel, IOW – They don’t even concede that Israel has the right to exist.
Q: How can one negotiate with such people?
A: You can’t.
This brings up a question: Does Israel even concede that Hamas has a right to exist? How about a Palestinian state in general? Could you provide a link to Netanyahu conceding these points recently?
I think you are choosing the wrong outrage to highlight. Neither side wants the other to exist, certainly not as a recognized, sovereign state. You should instead highlight the fact that only one side deliberately and shamelessly decapitates babies. (Well, to be honest, the other side does, too, but only in the womb and with the consent of the mother, and they are usually babies of their own nationality and ethnicity, rather than those of their enemies. But then, so does the USA. There’s still a difference, but it’s more black-and-gray vs black-and-white.)
Israel created Hamas. Israel knew about the plans for the 10/7 attack for over a year. The real question here is: How can Israel ever be trusted?
If you are pro-Israel then you are pro-terrorism.
https://theintercept.com/2018/02/19/hamas-israel-palestine-conflict/
I don’t know if anyone followed my posts about Islam lately but if they have then my opinion that it is implacably hostile to all “infidels” should be obvious. This view long predates my army service during Desert Storm and comes from much study and observation. Nevertheless when something sets them off it pays for everyone’s sake to work out the total picture. Two days ago CBS broke an important story entitled “Some red cows from Texas have a central role in the war torn holy land. “Search for this title for the whole story but I will summarize. It seems That a Hammas leader an nouced the attack is about red cows being smuggled into Israel. An organization called the Temple Mount Faithfull working with fundamentalist Christian cattle breeders from Texas have developed a breed called Texas Red Angus cows. Importing such cattle to Israel is illegal but they slipped three of them in anyhow. The red heifers are to be sacrificed to produce ashes for a necessary purification ceremony for building the third temple which is to be located where the third holiest site to Islam now stands. The moslems got wind of it went berserk. The Christian fundamentalists think building the third temple will trigger Christ’s second coming. Well, as a non -fundamentalist Baptist theologian once told me “It may be fun but it is not much mental.” Catholics know that the offering of the body and blood of Christ in the mass is the now the only sin offering acceptable to the Father and that He would not be pleased by substituting livestock instead. many people are looking for signs nowadays but I will not absolutely INSIST that the utter annihilation of the Texas cattle industry in a vast and unprecedented inferno is due to His wrath –but I won’t rule it out either.
As commiting genocide is one of the gravest acts a soul can undertake as it in essence amounts to being a total repudiation of the Christian faith, Joe Biden being clearly complicit, and is enabling the genocide the Israeli government is conducting, it would only make sense if Joe Biden is excommunicated least it awaken Biden’s conscience to repent. Biden himself can stop the genocide and the wars in the Middle-East in a day if he chooses to do so.
Overcoming evil with good is the way forward.