• 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
Pope Francis waves to people gathered in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican for the recitation of the Angelus prayer Oct. 13, 2024. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Pope calls for Mideast cease-fire; prays for peace in Ukraine, Haiti

October 14, 2024
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, Feature, News, Vatican, War in Ukraine, World News

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

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis called again for “an immediate cease-fire on all fronts” in the Middle East, urging leaders to “pursue the paths of diplomacy and dialogue to achieve peace.”

The pope made the appeal Oct. 13 after leading the recitation of the Angelus prayer with visitors in St. Peter’s Square.

A year after Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing and taking hundreds of hostages, Israel’s retaliation and attack on Gaza continues. Fighting has expanded to the Israeli-Lebanese border, with Hezbollah militants firing on northern Israel and Israel invading southern Lebanon and bombing Hezbollah positions in Beirut. Iran, which supports Hezbollah, fired ballistic missiles at Israel Oct. 1 and Israel was expected to retaliate.

All forces involved have inflicted death and hardship on civilians.

After reciting the Angelus, Pope Francis told the crowd, “I am close to all the populations involved, in Palestine, Israel and Lebanon, where I ask the United Nations peacekeeping forces to be respected.”

Several U.N. peacekeepers were wounded in Lebanon in the days before Pope Francis spoke; it was not clear who was responsible, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the United Nations Oct. 13 to move the peacekeepers from the border area, claiming Hezbollah was using the peacekeepers and their bases as shields.

While Pope Francis prayed for “all the victims (and) for the displaced” throughout the region, he also repeated his call for Hamas to release the hostages they took a year ago.

“I hope that this great pointless suffering, engendered by hatred and revenge, will end soon,” the pope said.

“Brothers and sisters, war is an illusion, it is a defeat: it will never lead to peace, it will never lead to security, it is a defeat for all, especially for those who believe they are invincible,” he said. “Stop, please!”

Two days after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Pope Francis also appealed for peace and humanitarian assistance for the victims of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“I appeal for the Ukrainians not to be left to freeze to death,” he said, referring to the approach of winter and Russia’s destruction of power plants and gas supply lines. “Stop the airstrikes against the civilian population, which is always the most affected. Stop the killing of innocent people!”

Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, the pope’s envoy for peace in Ukraine, arrived in Moscow Oct. 14 to speak with government officials “to facilitate the family reunification of Ukrainian children” forcibly taken to Russia and about “the exchange of prisoners, with a view to achieving the much hoped-for peace,” said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office.

Pope Francis also told the crowd that he is following the “dramatic situation in Haiti” where extreme gang violence “continues against the population, forced to flee from their own homes in search of safety elsewhere, inside and outside the country.”

Since 2020 Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, has been the scene of ferocious gang battles, and since February most of the capital has been in the control of gang members. But the violence is spreading. In the town of Pont-Sondé Oct. 3 gang members killed at least 115 people and caused more than more than 6,000 people to flee their homes.

“I ask everyone to pray for an end to all forms of violence” in Haiti, Pope Francis said, and he encouraged the international community “to continue working to build peace and reconciliation in the country, always defending the dignity and rights of all.”

Read More Vatican News

Pope says he hopes Trump-Putin meeting leads to ceasefire in Ukraine

Hope is knowing God is always ready to forgive, pope says at audience

Pope prays world leaders recognize their responsibility for peace

Works of mercy are best way to invest what God gave you, pope says

‘Rerum Novarum’ 2.0? Catholic labor advocates heartened by Pope Leo’s direction

Ambassadors call attention to starving Israeli hostages, Gazan civilians

Copyright © 2024 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 |

  • The ‘both/and’ pope

  • Patrick Brice sentenced to home detention for attacks on elderly pro-life supporters

  • Statue of Confederate general known as anti-Catholic to be reinstalled in nation’s capital

  • Movie Review: ‘The Naked Gun’

  • Gun buyback exceeds expectations, previous totals

| Latest Local News |

Baltimore NBCC leader among People of Life awards winners

Gun buyback exceeds expectations, previous totals

Radio Interview: The situation in Gaza with Catholic Near East Welfare Association

Patrick Brice sentenced to home detention for attacks on elderly pro-life supporters

Notre Dame of Maryland University joins with Milwaukee college to address teacher shortage

| Latest World News |

Pope says he hopes Trump-Putin meeting leads to ceasefire in Ukraine

Sisters of Life ‘are the very mirror of God,’ cardinal says as 3 take perpetual vows

For Gazans, the deep silence of hunger has replaced noise of daily life

Hope is knowing God is always ready to forgive, pope says at audience

Report: Christian church attacks down, but recent totals still higher than 2018-2022

| 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

  • Baltimore NBCC leader among People of Life awards winners
  • Pope says he hopes Trump-Putin meeting leads to ceasefire in Ukraine
  • Sisters of Life ‘are the very mirror of God,’ cardinal says as 3 take perpetual vows
  • For Gazans, the deep silence of hunger has replaced noise of daily life
  • Hope is knowing God is always ready to forgive, pope says at audience
  • Images of Mary: Can we find the Blessed Mother in the Old Testament?
  • Report: Christian church attacks down, but recent totals still higher than 2018-2022
  • How public opinion can influence migration policies
  • Question Corner: Is it simony that my parish wants to charge a fee for having a funeral livestreamed?

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