Catholic bishops announce day of prayer for Peace in Mozambique

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Catholic bishops announce day of prayer for Peace in Mozambique

5:31 CAT | 28 Apr 2016

L'Osservatore Romano / Pope Francis receives the Catholic bishops of Mozambique in the Vatican

The Episcopal Conference of Mozambique decided that Sunday May 22, the celebration of the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, will be a day of prayer for peace.

The Catholic bishops’ decision was announced in the final communiqué of the conference’s plenary assembly, and goes on to ask that the donations made on May 22 be passed on to the Caritas organization.

Reiterating the desire to “seek together the path of peace,” Mozambican bishops are calling for a ceasefire between the parties to Mozambique’s long-running political and military unrest, and effective dialogue between the parties to also involve civil society.

The government and the opposition are urged to “put in place concrete measures to end the hostilities and allow the resumption of normal life in the country, which is now semi-paralyzed”, and the Episcopal Conference communiqué sums up in dramatic terms the state of local development.

“No investment, no help from other countries, constant weakening of tourism, lack of security of movement, 36,000 children and young people with no access to education, 11,000 Mozambican refugees in Malawi and the slide of the economy.”

“What are they trying to achieve?” is their final disturbing question.

The Catholic church advocates dialogue and national reconciliation as routes to peace, and express the wish that the peace agreement signed between the government and the Mozambique National Resistance in Rome in 1992 be actually implemented.

“The last war cost the lives of over one million people. Never again! In the name of God, we work for peace,” the bishops conclude, entrusting to the care of the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, the people of Mozambique.

Source: Radio Vaticana