Eucharistic Congress: Cardinal Gracias silence and prayer for the victims of Paris
Mumbai (AsiaNews) - Cardinals, bishops and participants in the National Eucharistic Congress (NEC), being held in Mumbai (India), observed a minute of silence and prayed for the victims of the terrorist attack last night in Paris, where about 130 people are believed to have died.
Addressing those present, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Mumbai, said: "The participants in the NEC observe a moment of silent prayer - ours is a cry to God that rises from deep in the silence - to commemorate the victims of the tragic events that have taken place at this time in Paris. "
Speaking of the tragedy, Cardinal Gracias said that "innocent victims have been brutally torn from us by a senseless violence." Our hearts, adds the cardinal, "cry out to the Lord Jesus" to "give comfort" to victims' families, friends and the entire nation for an act that is "a heinous crime against humanity."
"We, the participants in the Eucharistic Congress - says Cardinal Gracias - called to be bread for others, pray in solidarity" with the dead and their loved ones and ask Jesus Christ "to turn our lives into a haven of peace and fraternity" . And through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, he adds, "we become a piece of bread of life that Jesus, your son, has broken for a new world".
This afternoon, announced the cardinal, the Eucharistic Congress delegates will participate in a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady; along the way, they will be praying the rosary in memory of the victims so that through Mary’s intercession “a culture of love, forgiveness and reconciliation can be instilled, for which Jesus came among us." The archbishop of Mumbai concluded “we ask Jesus that the Eucharist is a source of renewed hope and momentum to push back with renewed force the ways of hatred and violence."
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