POPE Francis has appealed for peace in Syria after reports of citizens being killed by chemical weapons used by the government to quell the rebellion.
Although the Syrian government has promised to allow UN inspectors to investigate, it is believed evidence will not be found if the government of Bashir al-Assad has tampered with any links to them in the chemical attack.
Pope Francis said he was following the situation with “great suffering and concern.”
“The growth in violence in a war between brothers, with a multiplication of massacres and atrocities that we have all been able to see in the terrible images of recent days, moves me once again to call in a loud voice for the fighting to cease,” he said.
“It is not conflict that offers a perspective of hope for resolving problems, but it is the capacity for meeting and dialogue.”
Pope Francis expressed his solidarity to the victims of the ongoing conflict, inviting them despite the circumstances, to keep “the hope of peace alive.”
He called on the international community to be more responsive to the war in Syria.
The international community, he said, must “do all it can to help the beloved Syrian nation find a solution to a war that sows destruction and death.”
POPE Francis has called again for an end to the fighting in Syria, denouncing the “multiplication of massacres and atrocious acts,” including the suspected chemical weapons attack that left hundreds dead.
As UN weapons inspectors received permission from the Syrian government on August 25 to visit the site of the alleged attack, Pope Francis said the “terrible images” of the dead, including children, “push me once again to raise a voice so that the roar of the weapons would stop.”
“It is not clashes, but an ability to meet and to dialogue that offers prospects for a hope of resolving the problems,” the pope said after reciting the Angelus with visitors in St Peter’s Square.
Once again the pope asked the crowd to join him in praying that Our Lady, queen of peace, would intercede to stop the fighting that has raged in Syria since March 2011 as rebels try to oust Syrian president Bashar Assad.
“From the depths of my heart, I want to express my closeness in prayer and solidarity with all the victims of this conflict (and) all those who are suffering, especially the children, and ask them to keep their hopes for peace alive,” the pope said.
He asked the international community to pay more attention to the conflict in Syria and help the nation’s people “find a solution to this war that is sowing destruction and death.”
Archbishop Mario Zenari, the nuncio to Syria, told Vatican Radio on August 25 that looking at the images of the alleged chemical attack, “I hear the cry of these children, these innocent victims.”
At the same time, he said he prayed that the leaders of both sides in the conflict as well as leaders in the international community “would be gifted with much wisdom and much prudence” as they decide how to move forward.
“We must do so in a way that these crimes, these massacres never happen again,” the archbishop said.
“We must find the most appropriate and opportune means to react, ways that will not complicate the situation.”
Chaldean Catholic Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo told Vatican Radio on August 26 that Pope Francis was calling for a real commitment by the international community to encourage dialogue and negotiations in Syria.
“If there were a military intervention, I think this would lead to a world war,” the bishop said.
“There is this risk.
“Let’s hope that the pope’s appeal will promote a real dialogue between the parties in conflict.”
The objective must not be more fighting, but acting so that “the people will be free to move around, travel, communicate (and) work.”
“This is what we hope for: An international effort that will help dialogue and not make war,” he said.
CNS
