In his Aug. 31 Angelus address from Saint Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV prayed for the victims of last week’s deadly shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis and called on the faithful to embrace humility in daily life.
“Our prayers for the victims of the tragic shooting during a school Mass in the American State of Minnesota include the countless children killed and injured every day around the world,” the Pope said in English. “Let us plead God to stop the pandemic of arms, large and small, which infects our world.”
Pope Leo asked the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, to intercede and help fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah: “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Is 2:4).
>> Pope Leo sends quick reaction to deadly shooting at Catholic School in Minneapolis <<
Speaking in Italian, Pope Leo reiterated his calls for a ceasefire in Ukraine and urged world leaders to abandon the “logic of weapons and take the path of negotiation and peace.”
The Holy Father’s remarks came at the close of a reflection on Luke 14:1, 7-14, where Christ warns against seeking places of honor at a wedding banquet. Pope Leo explained the Gospel illustrates how often people treat life as “a competition,” saying too many strive to “be noticed” rather than live in humility and fraternity.
“It is very important that we see ourselves through his eyes: to see how frequently we reduce life to a competition,” he said, “how anxious we become to obtain some sort of recognition, and how pointlessly we compare ourselves to others.”
He added that humility is “really freedom from ourselves” — a true freedom Christians experience when “we allow ourselves to look ahead: not down at our feet, but at what lies ahead.”
“Dear friends, today let us pray that the Church will always be a school of humility for everyone, a home where all are welcome, a place where rivalries are set aside and where Jesus still speaks to us and teaches us to imitate his own humility and freedom.”
After the Angelus, Pope Leo mourned the victims killed in a migrant boat wreck off Mauritania. The BBC reported Aug. 29 that at least 69 people died when their boat capsized off northwest Africa.
He also drew attention to the Sept. 1 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, established a decade ago by Pope Francis, before offering greetings to pilgrims from across Italy and abroad.
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Author: Elise Winland
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