• Men and women of goodwill across the globe on Thursday responded to Pope Francis’ call to join in prayer to participate in the “One Minute for Peace” initiative.

    The Pope’s appeal for prayers and international participation in the initiative came during his Wednesday General Audience when he recalled that the initiative represents a short moment a of prayer on the recurrence of the meeting in the Vatican between the Pope, the late Israeli President Peres, and the Palestinian President Abbas.

    Their encounter took place in the Vatican Gardens on 8 June 2014, during which the three men prayed together for peace.

    “In our days, Pope Francis said, there is a great need to pray – Christians, Jews, and Muslims – for peace.”

    Bishop Antoine Audo says it is important and he expresses his admiration for Pope Francis, whom he said, “uses little things to not forget peace and to say that everybody is able to build peace in the world”.

    “I admire this initiative: it helps us a lot. But at the same time as bishop living in Aleppo and Syria I have to say we are very tired about the perspective of peace; we wait, we wait, we wait, and at the same time our families and young people are leaving to emigrate and this is a very big sadness for us” he says.

    Source: Vatican Radio