One minute for peace with Pope
Francis
Men and women of goodwill across the world are invited to
stop for one minute on Monday and pray for peace.
By Vatican News
The International Forum of Catholic Action (IFCA) is calling
on believers across the globe to stop, bow their heads and pray for peace,
every one according to his or her own tradition, at 1 pm Rome time on Monday 8
June.
IFCA has chosen this date to commemorate the unprecedented
“Meeting of Prayer for Peace”, called for by Pope Francis on 8 June 2014, in
which the Presidents of Israel and the Palestinian Authority met in the Vatican
to pray together for peace in the Holy Land.
Launching today’s initiative, the organization said it
called for the first “A Minute for Peace” event In 2014 in preparation for that
unprecedented meeting of prayer promoted by the Pope. That initiative was
supported by local Catholic Action organizations, by the World Union of Catholic
Women’s Organizations and by other entities.
“We urged a prayer in the form of a witness: short, simple,
for everyone. The response was significant in the various countries, in
particular, almost 10,000 people gathered on Facebook in a short time,” an IFCA
statement said.
The underlying theme of the 8 June 2020 “Minute of Prayer
for Peace” is from Pope Francis’ Message for this year’s World Day of Peace:
“Peace is a great and precious value, the object of our hope and the aspiration
of the entire human family.”
The initiative aims to motivate “all those who care about
peace, believers and non-believers alike,” to join in a minute of prayer or
silence.
IFCA explained that it is an invitation “to pray by oneself
or with other people, in safety, in our homes or our places of work or study,”
and encouraged participants to engage others and promote the event on social
and other media.
Acknowledging the difficult situation we are living because
of the pandemic, the statement quotes from the Pope’s reflection during
the Extraordinary Moment of Prayer, which took place
on 27 March: “How many people every day are exercising patience and offering
hope, taking care to sow not panic but a shared responsibility. How many
fathers, mothers, grandparents and teachers are showing our children, in small
everyday gestures, how to face up to and navigate a crisis by adjusting their
routines, lifting their gaze and fostering prayer. How many are praying,
offering and interceding for the good of all. Prayer and quiet service: these
are our victorious weapons. (…) The Lord asks us and, in the midst of our
tempest, invites us to reawaken and put into practice that solidarity and hope
capable of giving strength, support and meaning to these hours when everything
seems to be floundering.”
The International Forum of Catholic Action
IFCA was established by the Catholic Action movements of
Argentina, Spain, Austria, Malta, Mexico and Italy, following the 1987 Synod of
Bishops on “The Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in
the World”, and the ensuing publication of Pope John Paul II’s Post-synodal
Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles
laici.
The organization stemmed from the need to create a structure
that would enable Catholic Action associations and movements to meet, exchange
ideas and experiences, and show solidarity.
In 1995, the Pontifical Council for the Laity issued a
decree recognizing the International Forum of Catholic Action as an
international organisation of pontifical right.
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