Church in the World

Pope prays for victims of terror

Rome

18 September 2004

Pope John Paul II last week departed from the usual topics he considers in his weekly address to make clear his deep concern over the horrors in Beslan.

Speaking on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on 8 September, the Pope said that the thought of the infant Mary brought to mind children who were 'victims of a barbarous hostage-taking and tragically slaughtered' in their school in Beslan, North Ossetia.

The siege of the school ended on 3 September with a battle between pro-Chechen gunmen and Russian security forces which left more than 335 children and adults dead, 700 wounded and 100 missing.

'They were inside a school, a place for learning the values that give sense to history, culture and the civilisation of peoples,' the Pope said. 'Instead they experienced outrage, hate and death, the evil consequences of a cruel fanaticism and insane contempt for human life.'

John Paul II said he thought also of 'all the innocent children who in every part of the earth are victims of the violence of adults, children forced to bear arms and taught to hate and kill, children induced to beg in the streets, used for easy gain, children abandoned, deprived of the warmth of the family and of future prospects, children who die of hunger, children killed in so many conflicts in various regions of the world'.
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