CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2023 / 13:29 pm
The international justice committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is calling for peace in the embattled Holy Land after last week’s surprise incursion by Hamas into Israel resulted in a declaration of war by Israel.
In a statement on Sunday, Rockford Bishop David Malloy, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace, lamented the “mounting casualties and hostilities unfolding on all sides,” as well as the “increased threats to the status quo of the holy places among Jews, Muslims, and Christians.”
“I join with Pope Francis in his call for peace and his condemnation of this widespread outbreak of violence,” Malloy said.
He quoted from the Holy Father’s Sunday address, in which the pope implored: “May the attacks and weaponry cease. Please! And let it be understood that terrorism and war do not lead to any resolutions, but only to the death and suffering of so many innocent people.”