Vatican calls for 7 October fast
Pope and Latin Patriarch ask Catholics to fast and pray for peace
In a plea echoed by the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Pope asked Catholics throughout the world to mark the first anniversary of the 7 October massacre with fasting and prayer.
The Pope called for “a special day of prayer and fasting for peace”.
Speaking after Mass in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City, the Pope said: “In this dramatic hour of our history, while the winds of war and the fires of violence continue to devastate entire peoples and nations,” the Christian community was reminded of its call to “put itself at the service of humanity.”
The Pope had just opened the second session of the General Assembly of the Synod, a formal gathering of bishops of the Catholic Church.
Cardinal Nichols has asked priests and parishioners throughout the diocese to pray for peace today, 7 October, “in response to the increase of the intensity and scope of the conflict in Lebanon and Israel”.
The Pope’s call was echoed by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who said the day should be a day of prayer, penance and fasting for peace in the Holy Land. He spoke of the “need to pray, to bring our pain and our desire for peace to God”.
Because 7 October is also a Catholic feast — of Our Lady of the Rosary — people have been told they can mark the occasion with a public recitation of the rosary, either in addition to fasting or instead.
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