"Stop massacres, stop violence, stop hatred in Iraq!". This is the three-fold appeal made yesterday by the Pope, who, in saying the Angelus prayer at the end of the celebration of Palm Sunday, "in which we have meditated on the Passion of Christ", recalls "the late archbishop of Mossul of the Chaldeians, monsignor Paulos Faraj Rahho, tragically disappeared a few days ago". "His beautiful testimony of faithfulness to Christ and to his people, whom, despite many threats, he had not wanted to forsake said Benedict XVI drives me to raise a strong, heart-felt cry: Stop massacres, stop violence, stop hatred in Iraq!". In addition, the Holy Father made an appeal "to the Iraqi population, who for five years have suffered the consequences of a war that has disrupted its civil and social life". "Beloved Iraqis exhorted the Pontiff , raise your heads and be yourselves, in the first place, the re-builders of your own national life! Let reconciliation, forgiveness, justice and the respect of civilised cohabitation between different tribes, ethnic groups, religious groups be the loving way towards peace in the name of God!".
