Pope Leo: Christians demand ceasefire and dialogue in the Middle East

‘Do those Christians who bear grave responsibility in armed conflicts have the humility and courage to make a serious examination of conscience and to go to confession?’

Pope Leo appealed for a ceasefire in the Middle East as the war between Iran and Israel and the US entered its third week.

“On behalf of the Christians of the Middle East, and of all women and men of good will, I appeal to those responsible for this conflict: cease fire,” he said in his address after the Angelus in St Peter’s Square on Sunday.

“May paths of dialogue be reopened. Violence can never lead to the justice, stability and peace for which the peoples are waiting.”

Condemning “the horrific violence of war”, he expressed “prayerful closeness to all who have lost loved ones in the attacks, which have struck schools, hospitals and residential areas”, seemingly acknowledging a strike on a primary school in Iran in the first hours of the conflict.

“The situation in Lebanon is a cause for great concern,” he continued. “I hope that avenues for dialogue will emerge to support the country’s authorities in implementing lasting solutions to the serious crisis currently unfolding, for the common good of all the Lebanese people.”

On Monday, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said they had begun “limited ground operations” in southern Lebanon after days of strikes on the Iranian-allied militia Hezbollah.

The Lebanese government protested at these attacks – which have caused hundreds of civilian deaths and forced evacuations from the area – and requested international support for its own measures against Hezbollah.

Last week, fire from an IDF tank killed the Maronite priest Fr Pierre al-Rahi in a village in southern Lebanon.  After attending Fr al-Rahi’s funeral on 11 March, the apostolic nuncio to Lebanon Archbishop Paolo Borgia returned to the area two days later to deliver humanitarian aid.

On Sunday morning, preaching at Mass in the parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rome’s Ponte Mammola district, Pope Leo said violent conflicts around the world were “incited on the absurd pretext of resolving problems and disagreements with war”.

“And some even claim to invoke the name of God in these choices of death, but God cannot be enlisted by darkness,” he said. “Rather he comes, always, to give light, hope and peace, and it is peace that those who invoke him must seek.”

Two days earlier, addressing participants in a training course on the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Leo emphasised the sacrament’s role in promoting “peace and unity within the human family”.

“One might well ask: do those Christians who bear grave responsibility in armed conflicts have the humility and courage to make a serious examination of conscience and to go to confession?”

Bishop Aldo Berardi OSsT, the apostolic vicar of Northern Arabia, emphasised the importance of maintaining interreligious dialogue despite the violence in the region.

“The Church chooses to maintain dialogue, because there is a real risk of slipping into a religious conflict,” he told the news service of the French bishops’ conference on 11 March.

“It is essential to show our closeness to all the peoples while remaining faithful to our evangelical principles. It is also important to remember that the current situation is not a religious war, but driven by economic and geopolitical factors before anything else.”

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