• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Catholicos Awa III, patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, prays with Pope Francis and other Christian leaders before joining an interreligious appeal for peace at the Colosseum in Rome Oct. 25, 2022. (CNS photo/Remo Casilli, Reuters)

Cries for peace can’t be ignored, pope says at interreligious meeting

October 25, 2022
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Ecumenism and Interfaith Relations, News, Vatican, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

ROME (CNS) — Standing in front of an ancient symbol of violent battles, Pope Francis and religious leaders from around the world echoed “the cry for peace” of people suffering the impact of conflicts around the world, but especially in Ukraine.

At various spots inside and around Rome’s Colosseum Oct. 25, members of different religions prayed separately for peace before coming together with Pope Francis to issue their appeal to all their followers and, especially, to the modern-day emperors who send their gladiators to fight to the death.

But even as the location reminded people of the first-century battles, the specter of nuclear war lurked nearby.

Sixty years ago, the Cuban Missile Crisis had the world teetering on the brink.

Pope Francis, addressing the religious leaders, noted the anniversary of that “grave international crisis, when military confrontation and nuclear holocaust seemed imminent.”

People attend a prayer service for peace with Pope Francis and other Christian leaders inside Rome’s Colosseum Oct. 25, 2022. Later, the group joined Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh and Hindu leaders launching an appeal for peace, especially in Ukraine. (CNS photo/Remo Casilli, Reuters)

And he quoted St. John XXIII’s words from Oct. 25, 1962: “We plead with all government leaders not to remain deaf to this cry of humanity. Let them do everything in their power to safeguard peace. They will thus spare the world the horrors of a war, the terrible consequences of which cannot be foreseen.”

Saying he made that appeal his own, Pope Francis told the crowd, “We are not ‘neutral, but allied for peace,’ and for that reason we invoke the ‘ius pacis’ (the right to peace) as the right of all to settle conflicts without violence.”

The event at the Colosseum, which included the signing of a formal “Appeal for Peace,” concluded the interreligious meeting the Community of Sant’Egidio sponsors each year to continue the relationships begun by St. John Paul II in 1986, when he invited religious leaders from around the world to join him in Assisi to pray for peace.

Marco Impagliazzo, president of Sant’Egidio, also quoted from St. John XXIII’s message during the Cuban Missile Crisis: “We recall the grave duties of those who have the responsibility of power. And we add: Let them hear the anguished cry that, from all points of the earth, from innocent children to the elderly, from individuals to communities, rises to heaven: Peace! Peace!”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the continued fighting there and Russian officials’ continuing veiled threats to use nuclear weapons dominated the concerns at the three-day meeting, although they did not ignore the often-forgotten wars in Ethiopia, Syria, Yemen, South Sudan, Haiti, Myanmar, Nicaragua and elsewhere.

“Today peace has been gravely violated, assaulted and trampled upon, and this in Europe, on the very continent that in the last century endured the horrors of two world wars,” Pope Francis said. “Sadly, since then, wars have continued to cause bloodshed and to impoverish the earth. Yet the situation that we are presently experiencing is particularly dramatic. That is why we have raised our prayer to God, who always hears the anguished plea of his sons and daughters.”

But Russia’s war on Ukraine is different, he said. “Today, in fact, something we dreaded and hoped never to hear of again is threatened outright: the use of atomic weapons, which even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki continued wrongly to be produced and tested.”

Pope Francis told the crowd, which included other Christians as well as Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists: “Peace is at the heart of the religions, their sacred writings and their teaching.”

The religious leaders gathered in Rome, he said, have heard the plea for peace that is “suppressed in so many areas of the world, violated by all too many acts of violence, and denied even to children and the elderly, who have not been spared the bitter sufferings of war.”

“That plea for peace is often stifled, not only by hostile rhetoric but also by indifference,” he said. “It is reduced to silence by hatred, which spreads as the fighting continues.”

While peace is a gift of God, the pope said, it also must be “embraced and nurtured by us men and women, especially by those of us who are believers. Let us not be infected by the perverse rationale of war; let us not fall into the trap of hatred for the enemy.”

The appeal signed at the gathering said humanity is at a crossroads; people today can be either “the generation that lets the planet and humanity die, that accumulates and trades weapons, under the illusion of saving ourselves against others, or instead the generation that creates new ways of living together, does not invest in weapons, abolishes war as a means of conflict resolution and stops the abnormal exploitation of planetary resources.”

“Humanity,” it said, “must put an end to wars or war will put an end to humanity.”

Read More Vatican News

Pope celebrates Apollo 11 anniversary with peek at the heavens, call to astronaut

Pope, Palestinian president discuss humanitarian tragedy in Gaza during phone call

Pope condemns Israel’s attack against church, calls for end to ‘barbarity’

Pope: Summer marks time to balance busyness with rest, prayer, joy with loved ones

A sower of light in the shadows

Filled with hope, Christians know cries of the innocent will be heard, pope says

Copyright © 2022 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Cindy Wooden

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Father Robert Wojsław dies at 52

  • Quo Vadis attracts biggest crowd ever, promotes camaraderie and faith

  • NBC’s Tom Llamas says Catholic education deepened his faith, pushed him to always do his best

  • Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

  • New Catholic scouting patch honors Pope Leo XIV

| Latest Local News |

Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

Radio Interview: Youth ministry changing with the times

Quo Vadis attracts biggest crowd ever, promotes camaraderie and faith

Lay associates journey with the Oblate Sisters of Providence

| Latest World News |

Christ is not absent from Gaza, but crucified in the wounded, patriarchs say after visit

Syrian Christian leaders say Islamist government can’t protect them or Druze

Kidnapped Nigerian priest who served in Alaska freed

Archbishop Wenski leads Knights on Bikes to pray rosary at Alligator Alcatraz

Poland’s government clashes with bishops over migration remarks while cardinal urges a shift in language

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Christ is not absent from Gaza, but crucified in the wounded, patriarchs say after visit
  • Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 
  • Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County
  • A Miracle for a Baby in Rhode Island (and for all of us)
  • Syrian Christian leaders say Islamist government can’t protect them or Druze
  • Kidnapped Nigerian priest who served in Alaska freed
  • Archbishop Wenski leads Knights on Bikes to pray rosary at Alligator Alcatraz
  • Poland’s government clashes with bishops over migration remarks while cardinal urges a shift in language
  • Patriarch’s visit hailed ‘a miracle,’ while parishioners in Gaza feel horror, desperation

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en