Pope Francis has prayed for the victims of devastating terrorist attacks in Iraq, Bangladesh and Turkey.
Speaking to the faithful in St Peter’s Square on Sunday, he offered his “closeness to the families of all the people killed and wounded” in two attacks over the weekend.
In Dhaka,the capital of Bangladesh, an attack on a café left 28 people dead. The following day later a lorry loaded with explosives detonated near a shopping centre in Baghdad, Iraq, killing at least 200 people.
ISIS claimed responsibility for both attacks but a Bangladeshi official said the terrorists were members of a homegrown jihadist group.
Days earlier the Pope had offered his prayers for the victims of an attack on Istanbul airport which left 44 dead.
At his Wednesday general audience he said: “Yesterday evening, in Istanbul, a brutal terrorist attack was committed, which has killed and injured many people.
We pray for the victims, for their families, and for the beloved people of Turkey. May the Lord convert the hearts of the violent, and sustain our feet on the way of peace.”
Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, in a letter to the Turkish ambassador in London, Abdurrahman Bilgiç, said the attack had “shocked the world and all who hold that respect for human life is an essential foundation for every society”.
He said: “The victims, their families and wider society are very much in my prayers. I assure you, too, of the prayers and condolences of the Catholic community in England and Wales. We, too, mourn this loss of life. We pray for the eternal repose of all who have died.”
Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said: “Evil tests our humanity. It tempts us to linger in the terror of Istanbul, Paris, Brussels, San Bernardino [and] Orlando.”
Christians should not focus on violence and let fear numb their compassion, he added, but instead should focus on faith and “reach out to our brothers and sisters in solidarity. As violence picks up its deadly pace, we can draw strength from God’s endless mercy,” he added.
Archbishop Blase Cupich said the attack during Ramadan “showed a deep lack of respect for faith and human life”.
Bishop urges South Africa’s leaders to denounce violence
South African Church leaders have called for an end to pre-election violence and criticised politicians for fuelling it.
Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley, who chairs the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s justice and peace commission, said: “We are disappointed that our political leaders have not been visible and loud enough in their condemnation of the recent factional violence and political assassinations.”
At least three people have been killed in the Tshwane area around South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, in riots triggered by the ruling party’s choice of a mayoral candidate for city elections, scheduled for August 3. Shops have been looted and vehicles set alight in violent protests over economic hardship. Politicians “are mobilising the young people in our communities, especially the unemployed youth, to engage in pre-election violence,” Bishop Gabuza said.
He urged South Africans “not to allow themselves to be used by politicians who show signs that their primary interest is greed for power and government tenders”.
The country’s Human Rights Commission said intimidation was endangering citizens’rights.
Lack of mercy ‘makes life barren’
Being indifferent to the plight of the poor and suffering turns Christians into “hypocrites” and brings them to a “spiritual lethargy that numbs the mind and makes life barren”, Pope Francis has said.
At his general audience he said: “People who go through life, who walk in life without being aware of the needs of others, without seeing the many spiritual and material needs are people who do not live … One who does not live to serve, serves nothing in life.”
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