{"id":73929,"date":"2025-08-22T09:53:59","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=73929"},"modified":"2025-08-22T09:53:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:53:59","slug":"pope-declares-global-day-of-prayer-for-peace-amid-rising-conflicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/08\/22\/pope-declares-global-day-of-prayer-for-peace-amid-rising-conflicts\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Declares Global Day of Prayer for Peace Amid Rising Conflicts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Anifowoshe Oladipupo<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Pope Leo XIV has declared Friday, August 22, a worldwide day of prayer and fasting for peace, as violence continues to escalate in Ukraine, the Holy Land, and other regions.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement, made during his General Audience in St. Peter\u2019s Square, coincides with the feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.<\/p>\n<p>The Pope urged Catholics worldwide to join in prayer, fasting, and acts of charity, describing these as \u201ccatalysts for change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe cannot remain indifferent,\u201d he said, inviting the faithful to seek Mary\u2019s intercession as Queen of Peace. \u201cLet us ask Mary to help nations rediscover the path of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Church leaders in conflict zones welcomed the initiative.<\/p>\n<p>Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa of Jerusalem said prayer \u201copens hearts where distrust and hatred have grown,\u201d while Bishop Vitalij Skomarovskyj of Ukraine described the Pope\u2019s appeal as a gesture of solidarity.<\/p>\n<p>Pope Leo reminded the faithful that peace requires both justice and forgiveness, echoing the teaching of St. John Paul II.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cForgiveness is not surrender; it is the strength that prevents new wounds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Anifowoshe Oladipupo &nbsp; Pope Leo XIV has declared Friday, August 22, a worldwide day of prayer and fasting for peace, as violence continues to escalate in Ukraine, the Holy Land, and other regions. The announcement, made during his General Audience in St. Peter\u2019s Square, coincides with the feast of the Queenship of the Blessed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":73930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,1681],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-religion"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73931,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73929\/revisions\/73931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}