Ang Pahayagan

The head of the Catholic bishops on Tuesday urged dioceses across the Philippines to hold prayer vigils for peace this weekend, echoing a call from Pope Leo XIV amid escalating global tensions.

The appeal follows the pope’s Easter “Urbi et Orbi” message, in which he announced a prayer vigil set this Saturday, April 11, at St. Peter’s Basilica.

The pontiff warned of a world increasingly shaped by conflict and what he described as a “globalization of indifference.”

Archbishop Gilbert Garcera, CBCP president, called on local churches to organize prayer gatherings, inviting the faithful to “implore the gift of peace” and renew commitments to dialogue, reconciliation and nonviolence.

Dioceses may hold Eucharistic adoration, recitations of the rosary or Masses dedicated to peace, he said.

“Such a collective act of prayer will not only express our solidarity with the Holy Father but will also witness to our shared hope that true peace, which begins in Christ, may prevail in our hearts and in the world,” Garcera said.

The pope on Sunday lamented that the world is “growing accustomed to violence” and “becoming indifferent” not only to the deaths of thousands of people, but to the “hatred and division” war causes, as well as its “economic and social consequences”.

“We cannot continue to be indifferent! And we cannot resign ourselves to evil!” he said.

Inviting the faithful to join him in the prayer vigil, the pope said, “let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination, and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars and marked by a hatred and indifference that make us feel powerless in the face of evil.” (CBCP News)

📸 Pope Leo XIV announces XIV announces April 11 peace vigil at St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (SCREEN GRAB FROM VATICAN NEWS)