http://www.actionlyme.org/

Benedict renews cease-fire appeal, calls for peace in martyred Mideast
region
8/7/2006

Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (Catholic Online) - Pope Benedict XVI
expressed dismay that calls for Israel and Hezbollah to end hostilities
in the Middle East have gone unheeded, appealing again for an immediate
cease-fire and renewed commitment for a just and lasting peace on a day
that U.N. diplomatic efforts seemed to fail.

Advertisement

Faced with the "bitter consternation that so far voices calling for
an immediate ceasefire in this martyred region have been ignored,"
the pope said he felt "the urgency to renew my pressing appeal about
this, asking everyone to make their active contribution to the
construction of a just and lasting peace," reported the Catholic news
agency AsiaNews.

Benedict made the remarks to thousands of pilgrims in his reflection
before the reciting of the Aug. 6 Transfiguration feast day Angelus
from his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, a town just south of
Rome.

Noting that "peace is above all a gift of God," Pope Benedict urged
both prayer and the commitment of people of good will to "obtain
peace for the peoples of the Middle East overwhelmed by fratricidal
conflict."

"Let none," he said, "shrink from this duty."

The pope has repeatedly called on both sides to lay down their arms
since fighting erupted on July 12 after Hezbollah abducted two Israeli
soldiers in a cross-border raid.

Hezbollah killed 12 Israeli soldiers and three civilians on Aug. 6 in
its deadliest rocket strike yet and Israeli bombs killed 19 Lebanese
civilians as Lebanon rejected a draft U.N. resolution to end the
26-day-old war.

Sunday's deaths brought to 93 the number of Israelis killed, including
45 soldiers, the 12 reservists and 36 civilians. Israel's attacks on
Lebanon through Aug. 6 have killed at least 606 people, including 524
civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers and at least 53 Hezbollah guerrillas,
according to the Associated Press.

Israeli warplanes repeatedly bombed Beirut's southern suburbs and
Lebanon's southern and eastern regions on Aug. 7, killing at least 15
people, according to press reports, as both sides in the conflict
sought to improve its position before a cease-fire resolution is voted
upon by the U.N. Security Council.

Entrusting his renewed appeal for peace "to the intercession of the
most blessed virgin," Pope Benedict tied the meaning of the
transfiguration of Jesus to the events of the day.

"On the transfigured face of Jesus shone a ray of the divine light
that he guarded within. This very light radiates on the face of Christ
on the day of the Resurrection," he said. "With the risen Christ,
truth and love triumph over deceit and sin. In Him, the light of God
now illuminates the life of men and the path of history permanently."

In his Aug. 2 general audience, Pope Benedict again appealed for an
immediate cease-fire in the Middle East, saying nothing justifies the
shedding of innocent blood, especially from so many children of the
region.

"Our eyes are filled with the chilling images of people's bodies -
especially children's - torn apart. I am thinking particularly of
Qana in Lebanon," the pope said. "I want to repeat that nothing can
justify the spilling of innocent blood, no matter which side does it."

He urged the international community "and those most directly involved
in this tragedy" to move immediately to a "definite political solution
of the crisis," one "able to give a more serene and secure future to
the generations to come."

At the previous Sunday's Angelus recitation, the pope said that
violence is not the answer to establish justice, to build a new order
and to create a lasting peace.

"In the name of God, I address to all those responsible for this spiral
of violence that all sides immediately lay down their arms," the pope
said.

"To political leaders and international institutions, I ask that no
effort be spared in order to obtain the necessary cessation of
hostilities," the pope said, "and thus to build, through dialogue,
a lasting and stable coexistence of all the people of the Middle
East."

Pope Benedict pointed to the "hundreds of dead, many injured, a vast
mass of homeless and displaced people, cities and infrastructures
destroyed, while hatred and thirst for revenge seem to be growing in
the hearts of many."

"These facts clearly demonstrate that it is not possible to
re-establish justice, create a new order and build real peace when
there is recourse to... violence."

He said that the events of the last three weeks show "the church's
voice is at once prophetic and realistic when, in the face of war and
conflicts of all kinds."

"This," he added, "is the path that humanity today must also
follow in order to achieve the desired good of real peace."

Reply »