Pope Francis to be nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Argentina, 4 December 2013: Argentina’s House of Representatives has passed a resolution
to nominate Pope Francis for the Nobel Peace Prize for his call to end the violence
in Syria. The resolution was passed by an overwhelming majority and now goes to the
Senate for ratification.
Representative Oscar Martinez, who sponsored the
resolution, described Pope Francis as “a man who throughout this year has been decisive
in maintaining international peace through his clear position regarding the conflict
in Syria.”
Since his election to the papacy, Pope Francis has made repeated
calls for peace in Syria. He sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin during
the G20 Summit in which he called on the international community to work for an end
to the violence in Syria and to reject any military intervention.
The Syrian
conflict has now dragged on for more than 2.5 years, since demonstrations sprang up
nationwide on March 15, 2011 protesting the rule of Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president
and leader of the country's Ba'ath Party.
In April of that year, the Syrian
army began to deploy to put down the uprisings, firing on protesters. Since then,
the violence has morphed into a civil war which has claimed the lives of more than
115,000 people. There are at least 2.2 million Syrian refugees in nearby countries,
most of them in Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey.
An additional 6.5 million Syrian
people are believed to have been internally displaced by the war. The Syrian rebels
are made up of a large variety of groups, including both moderates and Islamist extremists,
as well as Kurds.
Reports that chemical weapons had been used against civilians
in Syria, killing more than 1,400 people, led to a discussion of possible international
military action. Pope Francis called for a Day of Fasting and Prayer for Peace on
Sept. 7.
After weeks of negotiation, an international agreement was reached
to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons without a military strike.Source: CNA/EWTN