At the end of the Angelus this Sunday, August 13, Pope Francis lamented a “tragic” shipwreck in the Mediterranean, where 40 people have lost their lives.
The Holy Father assured that he has prayed for the victims and stated that “with pain and shame it must be said that since the beginning of the year, there are already almost two thousand men, women and children who have died in this sea trying to reach Europe.”
For the Pontiff, this “is an open wound of our humanity” and for this reason, he encouraged “the political and diplomatic efforts that try to heal it in a spirit of solidarity and fraternity, as well as the efforts of all those who work to prevent shipwrecks and rescue to migrants”.
He also recalled that tomorrow, the eve of the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven, a pilgrimage will take place in Bafoussam (Cameroon) to ask for peace in the country, “still devastated by violence and war”.
“Let us unite in prayer with our brothers and sisters in Cameroon so that, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, God sustains the hope of the people, who have suffered for years, and opens paths of dialogue to achieve harmony and peace,” asked the minister. Pope Francisco.
Likewise, he prayed for “the martyred Ukraine, which is suffering so much from this war” and assured his prayers “for the victims of the fires that have devastated the island of Maui, in Hawaii.”