Rome's Vicar General, Cardinal Baldo Reina, and the Bishops of Italy join in Pope Leo XIV's invitation for all faithful to live Friday, August 22, in fasting and prayer, imploring the Lord to grant us peace and justice and to wipe the tears of those who suffer due to ongoing conflicts.”

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Pope Leo XIV invites participants in the 46th Meeting of Friendship Among Peoples to remember that peace is made up of daily gestures, and warns that the digital revolution poses a series of risks and challenges.

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The Holy See has reiterated the Church’s closeness to the people of Haiti, reaffirming its constant support for efforts to promote peace and stability in the violence-ridden nation.

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Israel begins calling up around 60,000 reservists Wednesday ahead of a planned offensive in Gaza City.

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WASHINGTON – “The situation in Gaza and across the Middle East cries out for the assistance of the Catholic community of the United States,” said Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). In a letter to the U.S. bishops, he asked them to consider taking up a voluntary special collection in their dioceses, if they are able, to support the efforts of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA). Both organizations have well-established partnerships with the Catholic Church in the region to allow them to respond quickly and efficiently.

“Our Church mourns the terrible suffering of Christians and other innocent victims of violence in Gaza and surrounding areas who are struggling to survive, protect their children, and live with dignity in dire conditions,” continued Archbishop Broglio. “The Holy Father continues to call for a cease fire and for aid to enter the territory, noting with great sorrow that ‘Gaza is starving,’” and encouraged the bishops to consider the special collection in their dioceses at their earliest opportunity.

More information about the efforts by CRS and CNEWA in Gaza, please visit:

• https://www.crs.org/where-we-work/middle-east-north-africa/jerusalem-west-bank-and-gaza
• https://cnewa.org/what-we-do/support-emergency-relief-in-the-holy-land/

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Jesus' love and forgiveness do not deny the truth of pain and betrayal, but they do prevent evil from having the last word, Pope Leo XIV said.

"To forgive does not mean to deny evil, but to prevent it from generating further evil," the pope said Aug. 20 at his weekly general audience in the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall.

"It is not to say that nothing has happened, but to do everything possible to ensure that resentment does not determine the future," he said.

Continuing his series of talks about Jesus' final days, the pope looked specifically at "one of the most striking and luminous gestures in the Gospel," when Jesus offers a morsel of bread to Judas during the Last Supper, knowing full well that his disciple is about to betray him.

"It is not only a gesture of sharing: it is much more; it is love's last attempt not to give up," Pope Leo said.

"The key to understanding Christ's heart," he said, is to realize that his love "does not cease in the face of rejection, disappointment, even ingratitude."

"His love is stronger than hatred," he said.

The pope said Jesus recognizes that "his love must pass through the most painful wound, that of betrayal. And instead of withdrawing, accusing, defending himself, he continues to love: he washes the feet, dips the bread and offers it" to all his disciples, including Judas. 

Jesus is not ignoring what is happening, he said. Rather, he has understood "that the freedom of the other, even when it is lost in evil, can still be reached by the light of a meek gesture, because he knows that true forgiveness does not await repentance, but offers itself first, as a free gift, even before it is accepted."

Judas accepts the morsel of bread, but does not understand its meaning, and "Satan entered him," the pope said. "That morsel is our salvation, because it tells us that God does everything -- absolutely everything -- to reach us, even in the hour when we reject him."

"Jesus, with the simple gesture of offering bread, shows that every betrayal can become an opportunity for salvation if it is chosen as a space for a greater love," he said. "It does not give in to evil, but conquers it with good, preventing it from extinguishing what is truest in us: the capacity to love."

"Jesus' love does not deny the truth of pain, but it does not allow evil to have the last word," he said. "This is the mystery Jesus accomplishes for us, in which we, too, at times, are called to participate."

"We, too, experience painful and difficult" moments, such as when there is disappointment or when "someone has hurt or betrayed us," the pope said. "The temptation is to close ourselves up, to protect ourselves, to return the blow." 

"But the Lord shows us the hope that another way always exists," he said, and that the faithful can "respond with the silence of trust. And that we can move forward with dignity, without renouncing love."

"Let us ask today for the grace to be able to forgive," he said. "As Jesus teaches us, to love means to leave the other free -- even to betray -- without ever ceasing to believe that even that freedom, wounded and lost, can be snatched from the deception of darkness and returned to the light of goodness."

"Even if the other does not accept it, even if it seems to be in vain, forgiveness frees those who give it: it dispels resentment, it restores peace, it returns us to ourselves," he said.

Pope Leo spent nearly an hour and a half greeting visitors and pilgrims in the audience hall, including special guests, sports teams, newlyweds and the infirm. He greeted several families with small children, holding their newborns and posing for a family photo. 

He then headed to St. Peter's Basilica to greet those who could not fit in the large audience hall and blessed people who were waiting in the parking area outside the hall. Because of the high temperatures outside, the general audience was being held in two parts -- in the hall and in the basilica -- so people would not have to be under the hot sun.

The pope greeted the faithful in the basilica in English, Spanish and Italian and reminded them of the theme of forgiveness in his main catechesis.

"Let us all learn to pardon," he said in English. "Because to pardon one another is to build a bridge of peace. And we must pray for peace, which is so necessary in our world today, a peace which only Jesus Christ can give us."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV asked Catholics to observe Aug. 22 as a day of prayer and fasting for peace and justice, particularly in Ukraine and in the Holy Land.

At the end of his general audience Aug. 20, the pope noted that the church will celebrate the feast of the Queenship of Mary Aug. 22.

"While our world continues to be wounded by wars in the Holy Land, in Ukraine and in many other regions of the world," he said, "I ask all the faithful to spend Aug. 22 in fasting and prayer, asking the Lord to grant us peace and justice and to dry the tears of those who suffer because of the armed conflicts underway."

"May Mary, queen of peace, intercede so that people would find the path of peace," he prayed. 

The night before his audience, as he was greeting people who gathered outside the Villa Barberini in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo told reporters the new diplomatic moves aimed at ending Russia's war on Ukraine are a reason for hope, but much remains to be done.

"There is hope. We still have to work hard, pray hard and seek the way forward," the pope told reporters late Aug. 19 as he prepared to leave the villa and return to the Vatican.

Encountering the pope the day after U.S. President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a delegation of European leaders, the reporters asked Pope Leo if he had heard from any of the leaders.

"I hear from some of them from time to time," the pope said, but he did not respond to a journalist who asked if he speaks with Trump.

Pope Leo, who marked the 100th day of his papacy Aug. 16, also was asked how that was going.

It has been "a blessing from God," he said. "I receive so much. I really believe in the Lord's grace, and I am so thankful for the reception I have received."

Ending his short, second stay at Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo said he would return. "It's a grace to be here."
 

International NGO Human Rights Watch accuses the M23 rebel group of massacring civilians in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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At the General Audience, Pope Leo XIV reflects on the meaning of Christian mercy — a free embrace given without any preconditions, so essential for peace.

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“The people of Katsina State deserve to live in security and not in fear.” These are the words of Farouk Lawal Jobe, the acting Governor of Katsina. The Governor has since appealed to the President of the Nigerian Federation, Bola Tinubu, to take urgent action to address the dramatic situation of insecurity affecting this state located in the far north of Nigeria.

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