March 6, 2022 - "Ukraine"

After the 5:00 p.m. Mass on Sunday, February 27, 2022, a woman originally from the Ukraine stopped me to ask that we pray for the people of the Ukraine.  This individual still has family members living there and implored with me to pray and get other people to pray for this intention as well.  This was a most timely request.  Both Pope Francis and Cardinal Gregory have urged us to pray for peace in the Ukraine and other hot spots in the world in recent statements.
 
Here is an excerpt from remarks that Pope Francis made on February 23, 2022:
 
My heart aches greatly at the worsening situation in Ukraine.  Despite the diplomatic efforts of the last few months, increasingly alarming situations are opening up.  Like me, many people all over the world are feeling anguish and concern.  Once again the peace of all is threatened by partisan interests. I would like to appeal to those with political responsibility to examine their consciences seriously before God, who is the God of peace and not of war; who is the Father of all, not just some, who wants us to be brothers and not enemies.  I pray that all the parties involved refrain from any action that would cause even more suffering to the people, destabilizing co-existence between nations and bringing international law into disrepute.
 
And now I would like to appeal to everyone, believers and non-believers alike.  Jesus taught us that the diabolical senselessness of violence is answered with God’s weapons, with prayer and fasting.  I invite everyone to make next 2 March, Ash Wednesday, a Day of Fasting for Peace.  I encourage believers in a special way to dedicate themselves intensely to prayer and fasting on that day.  May the Queen of Peace preserve the world from the madness of war.
 
And here are remarks that Pope Francis made after reciting the Angelus with those assembled in Saint Peter’s Square on February 27, 2022:
 
In recent days we have been shaken by something tragic:  war.  Time and again we have prayed that this road would not be taken.  And let us not stop talking; indeed, let us pray to God more intensely.  For this reason I renew to all the invitation to make 2 March, Ash Wednesday, a day of prayer and fasting for peace in Ukraine.  A day to be close to the sufferings of the Ukrainian people, to feel that we are brothers and sisters, and to implore of God the end of the war.
 
Those who wage war forget humanity.  They do not start from the people; they do not look at the real life of people, but place partisan interests and power before all else.  They trust in the diabolical and perverse logic of weapons, which is the furthest from the logic of God.  And they distance themselves from ordinary people, who want peace, and who—the ordinary people—are the real victims in every conflict, who pay for the follies of war with their own skin. 

I think of the elderly, of those who seek refuge in these times, of mothers fleeing with their children.  They are brothers and sisters for whom it is urgent to open humanitarian corridors, and who must be welcomed.  With a heart broken by what is happening in Ukraine—and let us not forget the wars in other parts of the world, such as Yemen, Syria, Ethiopia… --I repeat:  put down your weapons!  God is with the peacemakers, not with those who use violence.  Because those who love peace, as the Italian Constitution states, “reject war as an instrument of aggression against the freedom of other peoples and as a means for the settlement of international disputes.”
Let me close with this statement issued on Twitter by Wilton Cardinal Gregory, Archbishop of Washington, on February 24, 2022:
 
We turn to the Mother of God, Our Lady Queen of Peace, and ask her to protect the people of Ukraine and strengthen people who seek and pursue a diplomatic halt to this latest tragedy of war.  This Ash Wednesday’s fasting and prayer is an appropriate time to beg for peace.
 
Until next week,
Fr. John