(Nov. 6, 2006) Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday appealed to Israeli and Palestinian leaders,
and to the international community as a whole, to put an end to the bloodshed in the
Holy Land. After praying the midday Angelus with several thousand people gathered
in St. Peter's Square, the Pope said that he follows "with profound concern the news
on the serious deterioration of the situation in the Gaza Strip." He also expressed
his "closeness to the civilian populations suffering the consequences of the violence."
The three Palestinian militias that are holding Israeli soldier Guilad Shalit threatened
to kill him if Israel does not halt immediately its military offensive in the northern
Gaza Strip. News agencies report that at least 48 Palestinians have died since Nov.
1, in this new Israeli military operation in Gaza. The operation seeks to reduce the
offensive capacity of the militias that fire rockets into Israeli territory. Benedict
XVI invited believers worldwide to join him in prayer "so that Almighty and Merciful
God will illuminate the Israeli and Palestinian authorities." The Pope's prayer for
divine illumination is also for "those nations that have a particular responsibility
in the region, so that they will commit themselves to halt the bloodshed, to multiply
initiatives of humanitarian help, and favour the immediate resumption of a direct,
serious and concrete negotiation." Before praying the Angelus, the Pope had shared
a reflection on the theme of death in the context of the November 2All
Souls Day, when the church and the faithful remember the departed. He noted that
it is "an appropriate occasion to remember our loved ones in prayer and to meditate
on the reality of death, which the 'civilization of comfort' often tries to remove
from people's conscientiousness, immersed in the concerns of daily life." Sometimes
"the loss of a loved one makes us discover the 'problem,' making us feel death as
a radically hostile presence contrary to our natural vocation to life and happiness."
But Jesus, with his teaching, especially by facing death himself, revolutionized the
meaning of death," the Holy Father said. In this way, the Son of God wished to share
our human condition to the end, to open it to hope. Ultimately, the Pope said, he
was born to be able to die and in this way to free us from the slavery of death.