Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the outgoing apostolic nuncio to the United States of America, celebrated a noontime Mass and led a prayer vigil for peace April 11 in the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
“We are here to pray as Christians, to stand before the risen Lord and to ask Him for the gift the world cannot manufacture itself – peace,” Cardinal Pierre said.
He lamented that the world is “wounded by violence, (and) suspicious of hope.”
“We hear the language of force, and we hear destruction justified by necessity,” he said. “We may begin to believe that peace is naïve and war is inevitable and that prayer is powerless, but because Jesus is risen, we known that His way is not a beautiful illusion but the true way.”
Cardinal Pierre also noted that “we gather to unite ourselves with the prayer vigil for peace being celebrated this very hour by the Holy Father.” Pope Leo was leading a prayer vigil for peace at the Vatican on April 11 at 6 p.m. Rome time, which is noon in Washington, D.C.
The pope had announced the peace vigil initiative on Easter Sunday, April 5. During his “urbi et orbi” blessing “to the city and to the world,” he urged the faithful to “allow ourselves to be transformed by the peace of Christ. Let us make heard the cry for peace that springs from our hearts.”
He repeated that announcement at his weekly general audience on Wednesday, April 8, asking people around the world to join him in praying for peace during these “hours of extreme tension.”
Dioceses throughout the United States – including the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington – and individual parishes took up the pope’s call and sponsored Masses, recitation of the rosary, and other events invoking God’s peace.
While the Mass at the National Shrine in Washington was offered at the exact time Pope Leo was leading the prayer vigil at the Vatican, it was also recorded for later broadcast on the Eternal Worl Television Network (EWTN). Several hundred people attended the Mass in the Crypt Church and hundreds more followed via YouTube and other social media platforms.
Cardinal Pierre said that prayers for peace are necessary because such prayer “exposes the lies that dwell within us that my security can be built on another’s terror, that innocent suffering is acceptable.”
Followers of Christ know that “mercy is not weakness, prayer is not weakness, the refusal of hatred is not weakness,” he said. “Prayer for peace becomes real when it makes us more truthful, more merciful, more ready for sacrifice.”
As the Church continues to celebrate Easter, the cardinal reminded the faithful that “if we have truly walked with the Lord and we have heard the announcement He is risen, then it is impossible for us to recognize a world organized around war.”
“Let us place on the heart of Christ the peoples who suffer, the innocents who are fearing, the families who mourn and our leaders,” he said.
Just hours after the conclusion of the Mass at the National Shrine, Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy planned to celebrate a Mass for Peace at 5:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle in Washington. He also invited diocesan pastors to do the same in their parishes on April 11.
During the Mass at the National Shrine, Cardinal Pierre led those gathered in the Crypt Church in reciting a prayer for peace, imploring the intercession of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary to “direct our hearts into the way of peace and justice.”
Calling on Our Lady as “glorious Queen of Peace,” the congregation prayed for her “guidance for our president and our leaders that they strive for world peace” and to “watch over us and protect us with your motherly love.”
Petitions during the Mass were offered for leaders of nations, regions of the world marked by conflict, that ceasefires may hold and that negotiations for peace bear fruit.
Citing the conflicts in the Middle East, Lebanon, Sudan, Ukraine and other parts of the world, Msgr. Walter R. Rossi, rector of the National Shrine, prayed at the beginning of the Mass that “Our Lady, the mother of the Prince of Peace, present our earnest plea for peace this day before her holy son.”
