According to Mozambican Bishop António Juliasse, the Pope’s message is that no wars should be forgotten.
Pope Leo expressed his closeness to the people of Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, during his Angelus address, this past Sunday, 24 August. Pope Francis previously referred to the insurgency in Cabo Delgado on several occasions.
“I express my closeness to the people of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, who have become victims of an unsecure and violent situation that continues to cause death and displacement. In asking you not to forget these brothers and sisters of ours, I invite you to pray for them, and I express my hope that the efforts of the country’s leaders will succeed in restoring security and peace in that territory,” said Pope Leo, following the recitation of the Marian prayer in St Peter’s Square, Vatican.
The Pope’s words were an important solace for the people affected by the Islamist insurgency, said Bishop António Juliasse of the Diocese of Pemba, which covers Cabo Delgado, in a message sent to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
“Pope Leo XIV’s message during the Angelus, which was addressed to the whole world, is, above all, an act of great closeness to the people of Cabo Delgado, who are suffering horribly from a war which began in 2017, and which continues to destroy lives, infrastructure and goods, and limits any possibility of development,” said the bishop.
The Mozambican bishop said that the Pope’s words are also a “clear call for this war not to be forgotten”, as well as a “major incentive for the rekindling of peace talks, that the people, victims of war, particularly the internally displaced and all the others who suffer from trauma, find some form of aid in the solidarity of the whole world”.
“I believe the Holy Father is simply saying that no wars deserve to be forgotten, because all wars harm life and desecrate human dignity,” Bishop António Juliasse concluded in his message to ACN.
The conflict in Cabo Delgado, which began in 2017, has grown in intensity in the past weeks, with a new wave of attacks causing at least 60,000 new internally displaced, adding to around one million IDPs who have been forced to flee their homes in the past eight years. The fighting has also caused more than 6,000 deaths.
ACN has been working closely with the Diocese of Pemba to provide direct material assistance to the victims of terrorism, in addition to pastoral and psycho-social support and even the purchase of vehicles for pastoral agents who work directly with the IDPs in the several camps in northern Mozambique.
By Paulo Aido.
