People must commit to promoting fraternity, easing tensions, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Christians can be peacemakers when they commit, with courage and humility, to strengthening relationships and to alleviating tensions between people, Pope Francis said.

“Peace is a gift from God, which, even today, must find hearts willing to accept it and to work to be builders of reconciliation and witnesses of hope,” he said in a letter, released June 4, to Auxiliary Bishop Baldo Reina, vice regent of the Diocese of Rome.

The diocese was celebrating the liturgical memorial of Mary “Salus Populi Romani,” which translates as “health (or salvation) of the Roman people,” for the first time June 4. The day marked the 80th anniversary of Pope Pius XII praying that Mary save Rome from destruction as German troops retreated and U.S. and British troops entered the capital June 4, 1944.

Remembrance of that event “is meant to be an occasion for prayer for those who lost their lives in World War II and for renewed reflection about the terrible scourge of war,” the pope wrote.

“Too many conflicts in different parts of the world are still ongoing today. I am thinking in particular of tormented Ukraine, Palestine and Israel, Sudan, Myanmar, where weapons are still rumbling and more human blood continues to be shed,” he wrote.

These tragedies create “countless innocent victims, whose cries of terror and suffering call into question the conscience of everyone: we cannot and must not give in to the logic of weapons!” he wrote.

When speaking to the United Nations in New York in 1965, St. Paul VI asked, “Will the world ever come to change the selfish and bellicose outlook that has spun out such a great part of its history up to now?”

Pope Francis wrote, “This question, which still awaits an answer, stimulates everyone to work concretely for peace in Europe and throughout the world.”

He expressed his hope that the diocese’s commemoration would inspire people to promote true peace and “revive fraternity as an essential condition for resolving conflicts and hostilities.”

Those who build peace, he said, promote fraternity and, “with courage and meekness, commit to creating bonds, establishing relationships among people and smoothing out tensions in the family, at work, at school, among friends.”

The pope prayed: “May Mary, Mediatrix of grace, ever vigilant and caring, obtain for all humanity the gift of concord and peace.”