DAILY CATHOLIC MONDAY May 17, 1999 vol. 10, no. 95
NEWS & VIEWS |
POPE LAUNCHES A NEW CALL FOR PEACE IN KOSOVO WHILE L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO CONDEMNS NATO'S MASSACRE OF REFUGEESHoly Father greets a group of Refugees in St. Peter's Square, Vatican paper demands Acceleration of Peace NegotiationsVATICAN CITY, MAY 16 (ZENIT).- At the conclusion of the first world encounter of volunteers, John Paul II launched a new call for peace in Kosovo.A group of refugees from the war-devastated region gathered in St. Peter's Square to hear the Pope's words to them: "I am very pleased to receive this morning a group of Kosovian refugees being cared for by Italian Caritas." In continuation he added, "Beloved brothers, in this month of May we are praying for peace. May the intercession of Mary most Holy obtain it for you and for all peoples made martyrs by war." "The search for negotiated solutions" for the crisis in the Balkans has "already taken too long," insisted "L'Osservatore Romano" on the front page of today's issue. "The new slaughter of refugees that has inflicted the most recent wounds in bleeding Kosovo, who is at the limits of its strength, constitute a call to the conscience of the world that it bring peace," stated the semi-official Vatican newspaper in its Italian edition. "Sorrow for the victims, shared suffering in the fears of those who, due to their flight, cannot know if their loved ones are among the dead, demands that the heads of the organizations of the international community listen to the cry of that rent conscience." "L'Osservatore Romano" recalled that hate is not something "inevitable," even though we find ourselves "before the obvious and cruel barbarity that ex-Yugoslavia has lived in this decade or before a technological violence that has made our century the bloodiest in history." Therefore, the article calls for responsible politicians not to give in to the temptations to "discouragement, or worse still, to indifference, which could increase the amount of time -- already too long -- needed to find a negotiated solution."
The article ends with a stern warning. "No one is allowed to put more
pitfalls into the perilous path of peace."
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