Pope Leo XIV has asked Catholics to join him in praying that members of different religions would work together to make life better for everyone rather than allowing their different beliefs to be used “as weapons or walls.” Choosing “collaboration between different religious traditions” as his prayer intention for the month of October coincides with the 60th anniversary of “Nostra Aetate,” the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on the church’s relationship to other religions. The document was promulgated Oct. 28, 1965. The pope’s monthly video sharing his prayer intention for October was distributed Sept. 30 by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.
“Let us pray that believers in different religious traditions might work together to defend and promote peace, justice and human fraternity,” he said in the video.“We live in a world full of beauty but also wounded by deep divisions,” Pope Leo said. “Sometimes, religions, instead of uniting us, become a cause of confrontation.”
The pope prayed that the Lord would purify people’s hearts “so that we may recognize what unites us and, from there, learn again how to listen and collaborate without destroying.”
The video includes footage of: St. John Paul II’s 1986 interreligious meeting in Assisi; Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the Rome synagogue in 2010; Pope Francis signing the Document on Human Fraternity in Abu Dhabi in 2019; and Pope Leo’s meetings with various religious leaders. “May the concrete examples of peace, justice and fraternity in religions inspire us to believe that it is possible to live and work together, beyond our differences,” Pope Leo prayed in the video.https://youtu.be/Z7eIwa8f64g?si=76BgIVm4mA7OXt-E
“May religions not be used as weapons or walls but rather lived as bridges and prophecy: making the dream of the common good credible, accompanying life, sustaining hope and being the yeast of unity in a fragmented world,” he concluded.
Let us pray that believers in different religious traditions might work together to defend and promote peace, justice and human fraternity.
Lord Jesus,
You, who in diversity are one
and look lovingly at every person,
help us to recognize ourselves as brothers and sisters,
called to live, pray, work, and dream together.
We live in a world full of beauty,
but also wounded by deep divisions.
Sometimes, religions, instead of uniting us,
become a cause of confrontation.
Give us your Spirit to purify our hearts,
so that we may recognize what unites us
and, from there, learn again how to listen
and collaborate without destroying.
May the concrete examples of peace,
justice and fraternity in religions
inspire us to believe that it is possible to live
and work together, beyond our differences.
May religions not be used as weapons or walls,
but rather lived as bridges and prophecy:
making the dream of the common good credible,
accompanying life, sustaining hope
and being the yeast of unity in a fragmented world.
Amen.
The Pope Video
The Pope Video is an official global initiative with the purpose of disseminating the Holy Father’s monthly prayer intentions. It is carried out by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (Apostleship of Prayer).
Since 2016, The Pope Video has had more than 247 million views across all the Vatican’s social networks, and is translated into more than 23 languages, receiving press coverage in 114 countries.
This video, produced by The Pope Video Prayer Network team, coordinated by Andrea Sarubbi, and created with the help of Coronation Media, is distributed with the help of the La Machi agency and the collaboration of Vatican Media. The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network is a Pontifical Society, with the mission of mobilizing Catholics through prayer and action in response to the challenges facing humanity and the mission of the Church.
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