7th October: Catholic community worldwide prays and fasts for peace

By Joseph Tulloch

Today, Monday 7th October marks exactly one year since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Catholics around the world marked the anniversary with a day of prayer and fasting for peace, in response to the Pope’s appeal last Wednesday.

The pope echoed a similar call made days earlier by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa.

A “vision of peace”

This call from the Patriarch and the Pope has been taken up by many Catholic groups around the world, from the Focolare Movement and the Order of Friars Minor to the Commission of Episcopal Conferences of the European Union.

Father Piotr Zelazko, who serves Israel’s Hebrew Catholic community, told Vatican News that his parishioners were also taking the opportunity to pray and fast for peace.

Despite the immense pain caused by the war, Father Zelasko said, “Hebrew-speaking Catholics cling to a vision of peace and healing, grounded in their deep faith and the promises of God.”

Conversion, penance and forgiveness

In its original statement calling for a day of prayer, Patriarch Pizzaballa stressed that Christians “have the duty to commit to peace” first by “preserving our hearts from any feeling of hatred” and by “cherishing the desire for good for all.”

The Patriarch urged his readers to “support those in need, to help those who are personally invested in relieving the suffering of those affected by this war and to promote all actions of peace, reconciliation and encounter.”

However, he stressed that “we must also pray, to bring to God our pain and our desire for peace. We must convert, do penance and beg for forgiveness.

Alms

This day is also celebrated here in Rome, where the second session of the Synod on Synodality is in full swing.

Papal chaplain Cardinal Krajewski said he would collect donations during the synod for the people of Gaza, particularly for the Catholic parish.

“The Holy Father has asked us to be especially united in prayer today,” he said, “praying, fasting and imploring peace for the whole world.”

“But prayer and fasting cannot be done without alms, which requires sacrifices: this must harm us, because we abandon what belongs to us to give it to our neighbor in need.”