All Italian media reported with emphasis on the joint presence of Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, which took place yesterday afternoon in the Basilica of St. Mary of the Altar of Heaven (Basilica di Santa Maria in Ara coeli) and in Campidoglio Square.
They prayed for peace and brotherhood – at the initiative of the Catholic organization of St. Giles – and met, along with other religious leaders, the Italian President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella.
In his speech, the Ecumenical Patriarch stressed, among other things, that “in order to build the brotherhood that leads to peace and justice, respect and understanding, to feel like members of a family just like in the family home, we must start with the care of our mutual home, in which we are all, as children of this humanity and of all that God has created.”
The Ecumenical Patriarch, at the same time, added that “the period of ecological fashion is over” and that “the era of action has begun.”
“Bartholomew has been actively involved in the protection of the planet for a long time, to the extend that in his encyclical ‘Laudato si’, Pope Francis described him as his source of inspiration”, emphasize the Italian news agencies.
“Let our unanimous appeal banish the darkness of evil, terrorism and violence and let this era – wounded by the pandemic – push us to seek, together, a cure for all evil,” the Ecumenical Patriarch stressed in the message he sent from the Eternal City.
Source: ANA-MPA
