” “A commemoration of the soldiers killed at Nassiriya last Thursday and an appeal “for the world to get rid of wars and terrorism”. This was the ending of the speech made by the Pope yesterday, after the Rosary prayer, the highlight of Benedict XVI’s first-ever visit to the Roman sanctuary of Divino Amore. “In the month of May recalled the Holy Father the number of people who come here on a pilgrimage from the parishes of Rome as well as from so many other districts increases”. From this Sanctuary, went on the Pope, “we especially expect to draw inner strength to fulfil the vow taken by the Romans on June 4th 1944, when they solemnly asked the Virgin of Divine Love that the city be preserved from the horrors of the war, and their wishes were fulfilled: the vow and the promise to correct and improve their moral conduct so that it would be more in agreement with that of the Lord Jesus”. A prayer, the one made over sixty years ago by the Roman to the Virgin of Divine Love, that for the Pope still holds out today: “Even today said Benedict XVI there’s the need to convert oneself to God, to God Love, for the world to get rid of wars and terrorism. We are sadly reminded of that by the victims, such as the soldiers who were killed at Nassiriya, Iraq, last Thursday, who we entrust to the motherly intercession of Mary, the Queen of Peace”.
