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STATEMENT BY BISHOP THOMAS V. DAILY Innocent men, women and children lost their lives in the bombings in Baghdad and Jerusalem Aug. 19, causing people of good will to lament the mindless acts of terror that continually threaten all efforts to bring peace and stability to two troubled areas of our world. How devastating for family members left behind, shattered by the reality that never again will they experience the earthly presence of their loved ones.
Our Holy Father’s condemnation of the bombings and his call for an end to violence which he proclaims so often echo the plea of Pope Paul VI which he delivered at the United Nations in l965 calling for “No more war!”
But peace seems so elusive, requiring that we continue to storm heaven with our prayers, asking, as Pope John Paul II has, for divine mercy for those who died, comfort for those who grieve, and wisdom for people in civil society who are in the position to “break this sorrowful spiral of hatred and violence.”
I ask the faithful of our Diocese in Brooklyn and Queens to join me in praying for peace in our world. Do not be discouraged when events go contrary to our desire for concord. Prayer to an all-loving God remains the greatest tool we, the faithful, have to pave the path to peace.
While we pray for all the families affected by the tragedies in Baghdad and Jerusalem, at the same time we offer a special prayer of thanksgiving for a family of our Diocese, the Manuels of St. Thomas the Apostle parish in Woodhaven. Benjamin Manuel, bereft by the report that his wife Marilyn, a United Nations employee, had died in the Baghdad bombing, learned later that she had survived the blast. With the Manuels and their four children, we thank Almighty God for this blessing.
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