Pope prayed this Sunday by the victims of the recent shooting at a Catholic school in the United States.
Pope Leo XIV criticized this Sunday in the Vatican, the “large and small gun pandemic” while praying for the victims of the recent.
Turning to thousands of pilgrims present in St. Peter’s Square, to the usual prayer of Angelus, the first American Pope in history spoke in English by appealing to the end of the “logic of weapons” and the prevalence of a culture of fraternity.
“[Fazemos] Our prayers for the victims of the tragic shooting during a school mass in the US state of Minnesota, ”said Leo XIV, adding:“ We keep in our prayers the numerous children killed and wounded every day around the world. We will implore God to stop the big and small weapons pandemic that infects our world. ”
Two children were killed and 20 people were injured during the attack on the Annunciation church in Minneapolis, while hundreds of students from the neighboring Catholic School of the Annunciation and others gathered for a mass. The shooter fired 116 shotgun shots through the church stained glass and later committed suicide.
At the time, Leo XIV also again appealed to a “immediate” ceasefire in Ukraine, with the intervention of the international community, evoking victims of Russian bombing in recent days.
“I vehemently reiterate my urgent appeal for immediate ceasefire and a serious commitment to dialogue. It is time for those responsible to renounce the logic of weapons and take the path of negotiation and peace, with the support of the international community,” he said, adding that “the voice of weapons must shut up while the voice of fraternity and justice must rise.”
Before the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the Pontiff, quoted by the Ecclesia agency, said that “unfortunately, war in Ukraine continues to sow death and destruction.”
“In these days, bombings have hit several cities, including the capital Kiev, causing numerous victims. I renew my proximity to the Ukrainian people and all injured families,” he added.
Then the Pope addressed the issue of migrants seeking to cross the sea to achieve better living conditions.
Leo XIV stated that his heart “wounded” by the dozens of dead and injured in the wreck of a boat that carried more than a hundred people on the coast of Mauritania, a “mortal tragedy that repeats itself every day around the world.”
“Our hearts are wounded by more than 50 people dead and about 100 still missing in the wreck of a boat loaded with migrants trying to the trip of 1,100 kilometers to the Canary Islands and sank on the Atlantic coast of Mauritania,” he said.
In his intervention today, Pope Leo XIV also lamented that sometimes life is reduced “to a competition” and urged the church to “be for all a laboratory of humility.”
It is necessary to “rethink how we often reduce life to a competition, as we lose our composure for some recognition, as we compare to each other,” the Pontiff said before thousands of faithful.
The Pope highlighted the importance of “a culture of the meeting, which is nourished by gestures that approach,” something that “is not always easy” in today’s world, “not so much in the family, but when it is important to ‘be noticed’. So being together becomes a competition,” he said.
“Stop to reflect,” said the Pope, “it’s an experience of freedom.”
“We ask today that the church is for everyone a workshop of humility, that house where everyone is welcome,” added the Pontiff.
