Some of the places God loves to hide, awaiting us to discover him, are those places that on the surface seem to be godforsaken, but when encountered with open eyes and open hearts, reveal our God of wonderful surprises, who loves everyone and everything he has created.
One of those hidden places God was awaiting to surprise us was at Bata Prison in Equatorial Guinea, during Pope Leo’s recent pastoral visit to Africa.
As the Holy Father entered, all of the hundreds of male and female inmates started joyfully dancing and singing in Spanish “Nuestro Santo Padre, te damos gracias. Ora por nuestros pecados y nuestra Libertad,” that is, “Our Holy Father, we thank you. Pray for our sins and our freedom!”
And in response to their joyful humanity – even in prison – Pope Leo preached a message encouraging their joyful humanity saying, “Every effort should be made” to ensure that incarcerated people “are given the opportunity to study and to work with dignity while in prison,” because, he added, “life is not defined solely by one’s mistakes.” There is always the possibility, he said, “to start over, learn and become a new person.”
The Holy Father kindly assured them that “no one is excluded from God’s love!” We would all do well to often meditate on this truth!
During his first year as head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo has appealed for peace more than 400 times – a reconciling peace that is “unarmed and disarming.”
In his address to members of the press he said, “Peace is not naïve. Therefore, it is useless for “the lords of war” to pretend “not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, but often not even a lifetime is enough to rebuild.” It is useless, too, for them to pretend “not to see that billions of dollars are needed to kill and devastate, while the resources needed to heal, educate and lift people up cannot be found.”
And in his meeting with the plenary assembly of the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches he similarly, boldly stated, “People are beginning to realize the amount of money that ends up in the pockets of merchants of death.” And added that “money that could be used to build new hospitals and schools is instead being used to destroy those that already exist.”
From Russia’s destruction of numerous Ukrainian schools and hospitals to the U.S. supported Israeli war on Gaza’s population and destruction of its infrastructure – including many hospitals and schools – it is clear to those with eyes that see and hearts that feel, that the corporate “merchants of death” and the political “lords of war” – in their lust for power and money – are leading our world toward madness.
But Pope Leo is not only prophetically trying to awaken us to these many crises attacking our world, but he is also pointing us to the answer, the solution, the cure of the deadly disease of war and all violence.
And here it is: “I have often mentioned that the peace of the risen Lord is ‘unarmed’.” “This is because He always responded to violence and aggression in an unarmed way, inviting us to do likewise.”
Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag6@comcast.net.
