Pope Leo XIV decries the fact that many Christians in the Middle East will be unable to celebrate Holy Week rites, urging everyone to remember the many people who share in Christ’s suffering as the Church contemplates the Mystery of the Lord’s Passion.
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Pope Leo XIV makes an impassioned appeal, decrying the many Middle Eastern Christians who will not be able to celebrate Holy Week rites and stressing that precisely as the Church contemplates the Mystery of the Lord’s Passion, we cannot forget those who share in his suffering.
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
“Precisely as the Church contemplates the mystery of the Lord’s Passion, we cannot forget those who today truly share in His suffering,” expressed at the conclusion of his Palm Sunday Mass in the Vatican, stressing, “Their trial calls upon the conscience of all.”
The Pope drew the Church’s attention to the plight of Christians in the Middle East.
“Dear brothers and sisters, at the beginning of Holy Week, we are closer than ever in prayer to the Christians of the Middle East, who suffer the consequences of a terrible conflict and in many cases cannot fully live the rites of these holy days.”
Thus, the Pope invited the faithful to join him in raising their supplication to the Prince of Peace, “that He may sustain peoples wounded by war and open concrete paths of reconciliation and peace.”
Also before reciting the midday Angelus prayer, the Pope entrusted to the Lord seafarers who are victims of war, saying he prays for the deceased, the wounded, and their families.
“Earth, sky, and sea,” he underscored, “are created for life and for peace.”
Finally, the Pope urged the Church to pray for all migrants who have died at sea, in particular for those who lost their lives in recent days off the coast of the island of Crete.
