After praying the Regina Coeli on Sunday Pope Francis invited Christians to pray for peace in Jerusalem, where clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police are intensifying over planned evictions of Palestinians from a Jerusalem neighborhood.
POPE FRANCIS
I invite everyone to seek shared solutions.
He also prayed for the victims of an attack on a school in Kabul, Afghanistan, which killed over 80 people.
POPE FRANCIS
...an inhuman action that struck so many young girls as they were leaving school.
There were many pilgrims from Colombia present in St. Peter's Square. The Pope saw them and recalled the violent protests against tax reform that have resulted in numerous deaths and injuries throughout the country.
POPE FRANCIS
I want to express my concern for the tensions and violent clashes in Colombia, which have caused deaths and injuries.
The Pope also explained how Jesus' message to love everyone as God loves us means to live in service of others, and not in pursuit of self-interest.
He then asked the crowd to reject any form of disordered love that prevents opening oneself to others: such as a love for money, success, or power, since he said they are barriers to freely loving others.
POPE FRANCIS
I am thinking of that unhealthy love that turns into violence - and how many women today are victims of violence. This is not love. To love as the Lord loves us means to appreciate the person next to us, to respect their freedom, to love them as they are and not as we want them to be, freely.
The Pope also called for a round of applause for Rosario Livatino, the judge killed by the Mafia who was beatified this Saturday in Palermo.
+Nats
JMB
TR: JM
