Rome, Italy
AP
Pope Francis led thousands of people in a moment of silence Wednesday to pray for the aid workers killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza and a young Ukrainian soldier named Oleksandre who was killed in ‘’this madness of war”.
Francis appealed anew for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages taken from Israel on 7th October by Hamas. Praying for the families of the seven World Central Kitchen workers killed, he called for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza’s people and for all efforts to prevent the conflict from spreading.
Pope Francis holds his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, on Wednesday, 3rd April, 2024. Pope Francis showed tourists and pilgrims the rosary and Gospel booklet that the 23-year-old Ukrainian Oleksandre had with him when he was killed in Russia’s war. PICTURE: AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino.
At the end of his general audience, Francis also showed tourists and pilgrims in St Peter’s Square the rosary and camouflaged New Testament book that a 23-year-old Ukrainian soldier named Oleksandre had with him when he was killed in the eastern city of Avdijevka.
They were apparently given to Francis two weeks ago by Sr Lucia Caram, an Argentine-born nun living in Spain who has spearheaded multiple humanitarian missions to Ukraine to bring in aid and ferry out wounded soldiers.
According to a 13th March Instagram post, Caram said Francis became emotional during a private audience when she presented him with Oleksandre’s rosary and New Testament. She said Francis kissed the rosary, which he himself had blessed on a previous occasion for Caram to distribute in Ukraine.
“He urged me to continue. He gave me more rosaries to bring to Ukraine,” she wrote at the time.
In showing off the items Wednesday, Francis flipped through the pages of Oleksandre’s underlined New Testament and said the young man still had an entire life ahead of him when he was killed.
He asked for a moment of silent prayer “thinking of this kid and so many like him, killed in this madness of war.”
Francis has previously shown off other relics of the Ukraine war, including a battered Ukrainian flag recovered from Bucha, the site of early Russian atrocities.
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Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Indonesia Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on Wednesday said Pope Francis was planning a visit to the predominantly Muslim country and discussions were ongoing with the Vatican about the trip.
“Yes, Pope Francis plans to visit Indonesia. We are currently preparing everything now,” Retno told Reuters, but provided no timeframe.
The Vatican’s foreign minister Archbishop Paul Gallagher in an interview last month with Jesuit magazine America said Pope Francis planned to visit Indonesia, Singapore, East Timor, Papua New Guinea in early September, and possibly Vietnam.
The Vatican has yet to confirm dates for the Asia trip, which would be one of the most taxing for Francis, who is 87 and whose health has been poor recently, forcing him to cancel some engagements including some Easter events last week.
Indonesian media reports, citing the religious affairs minister, have said Francis would visit in September.
Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation and its eight millions Catholics represent about three per cent of the total population of about 270 million people.
The Philippines and East Timor are the only predominantly Catholic countries in Asia.
Indonesia has been visited by two popes before. The first, Pope Paul VI in a 1970 trip to Jakarta and in 1989, Pope John Paul II, who visited Jakarta and four other cities.
– With reporting by Reuters correspondents ANANDA TERESIA and STEFANNO SULAIMAN in Jakarta, Indonesia, and ALVISE ARMELLINI in Rome, Italy
