Francesco, during the Angelus prayer on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, asks that the Holocaust of millions of Jews never be forgotten. He then remembers his friend, poet Edit Bruck, and urges the education of young people to “have an open heart for everyone.” The Pope also makes an appeal for Sudan, where the “most severe humanitarian crisis in the world” is occurring, urging the warring parties to come to the negotiating table. He also greets participants in the Jubilee of Communication, encouraging them to be storytellers of hope.
By: Salvatore Cernuzio – Vatican News
Published on:
Sudan, South Sudan, Colombia. Then war, leprosy, the horror of the Holocaust, the scourge of anti-Semitism and religious persecution, and the hopes for peace from the youth. Pope Francis takes a global view from the window of the Vatican Apostolic Palace after the Angelus on this Sunday, January 26. Thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square under a gloomy sky, including journalists and communication professionals participating in the dedicated Jubilee, as well as the boys and girls of the Peace Caravan organized by Italian Catholic Action. One of them, as every year, stands beside the Pope at the window to deliver a message on behalf of all the youths: the desire to “silence all weapons” and see the leaders of the world cross the Holy Door “hand in hand.”
Never forget the horror of the Holocaust
A “dream” shared by Francis who, before the young person’s speech, in a series of appeals recalls the upcoming International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust on January 27. This year marks eighty years since the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
The horror of the extermination of millions of Jewish and other faiths cannot be forgotten or denied.
No to anti-Semitism and religious discrimination
Francis mentions “the good Hungarian poetess” Edith Bruck, the 92-year-old Jewish writer who survived the wave of evil in several camps and has become a close friend of the Pope in recent years. “She has suffered all of that…,” the Pope says, recalling that Bruck will be a guest on the TV show “Che tempo che fa” tonight (where he himself was a guest a week ago) along with Senator for life Liliana Segre, also a Holocaust survivor. The memory of the massacre prompts the Pope to remember “also many Christians, including numerous martyrs,” and renew the appeal “for everyone to collaborate in eradicating the scourge of anti-Semitism, along with all forms of religious discrimination and persecution.”
Let us together build a more fraternal, just world by educating young people to have an open heart for everyone, in the logic of fraternity, forgiveness, and peace.
Appeal for Sudan and South Sudan: enough violence
In his Angelus address, the Pope also draws attention to the world, often distracted by wars downplayed as ‘minor’ or ‘distant,’ to the tragedy unfolding in Sudan since April 2023. In the third largest country in Africa, a conflict between government forces, the Sudanese Armed Forces, and paramilitary forces, the Rapid Support Forces, has resulted in a death toll that is difficult to calculate (70 were recently killed in El-Fasher, in the western part, during an attack on a hospital), 12 million displaced people, and over 30 million people in need of humanitarian aid. “About two-thirds of the entire population of the country,” according to Emergency.
Since April 2023, the African nation has been plunged into a war led by two rival generals that, according to the United Nations, has created the worst crisis in recent years.
Indeed, Jorge Mario Bergoglio describes it as “the most severe humanitarian crisis in the world, with dramatic consequences also in South Sudan.”
I am close to the populations of both countries and invite them to fraternity, solidarity, to avoid all forms of violence, and not to allow themselves to be instrumentalized. I renew the appeal to the warring parties in Sudan to cease hostilities and accept to sit at the negotiating table.
The Pope calls on the international community to do “everything possible to deliver the necessary humanitarian aid to the displaced and help the belligerents find paths to peace quickly.”
Concern for tensions in Catatumbo, Colombia
With the same concern, Francis looks at what is happening in the Catatumbo region in Colombia, where violence between the ELN and dissidents of the dissolved FARC has killed nearly a hundred civilians in less than a week and caused almost 32,000 displaced people. For this Sunday, the bishops have called for a Day of Prayer for Peace, which the Pope joins in spirit: “I express my closeness to them and pray,” he declares at the Angelus.
Support for leprosy patients
Francis also stands in solidarity with those who work for leprosy patients on World Leprosy Day, observed this Sunday. The Pope encourages continued efforts to eradicate Hansen’s disease, which has fortunately seen a decline in recent years. Although over 130,000 new cases have been reported in areas of the world such as India, Brazil, and Indonesia.
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