Thanking members of the military and the police for their service, Pope Francis asked them to be on guard against seeing other people as enemies and instead dedicate their lives to defending life, peace and justice. Source: CNS.
“Be vigilant lest you be poisoned by propaganda that instils hatred (and) divides the world into friends to be defended and foes to fight,” the Pope wrote in his homily for the Mass on Sunday for the Jubilee of the Armed Services, Police and Security Personnel.
The Vatican said about 30,000 active and retired members of the military and police from 100 countries registered as pilgrims for the Jubilee celebration.
Pope Francis, who has been suffering from what the Vatican said was bronchitis, presided over the liturgy in St Peter’s Square with a weak and hoarse voice.
US-born Cardinal Robert Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, was the main celebrant at the altar.
The Pope read the first paragraph of his prepared homily, ad-libbed about remembering how God was always close by, but then asked his master of liturgical ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, to continue reading the text because he was having “difficulty breathing.”
In the text, the Pope asked the military and police to “be courageous witnesses of the love of God our Father, who wants us all to be brothers and sisters” and to be “artisans of a new era of peace, justice and fraternity”.
“I would encourage you never to lose sight of the purpose of your service and all your activity, which is to promote life, to save lives, to be a constant defender of life,” the Pope wrote in his text.
Pope Francis also thanked police and prison guards who are “at the forefront of the fight against crime and violence” and all those who, in the name of their nations, are “engaged in relief work in the wake of natural disasters, the safeguarding of the environment, rescue efforts at sea, the protection of the vulnerable and the promotion of peace”.
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Pope: Vocation of military and police is to defend life, peace, justice (By Cindy Wooden, CNS)
