Lithuania: Bishops, “pray for peace, that the persecution of believers may stop, and victims of war may receive support and justice”

“By celebrating the birth of the Virgin and Our Lady of Šiluva, we respond to Mary’s call”: thinking of “the war in the Middle East, the rising tensions in south-east Asia, Europe still trembling for the terrorist attacks, and the concerns of our region, let’s pray the Most Holy Mother of God that she may give peace to the world and to our country”. This has been written today by the Lithuanian Bishops in a letter to the faithful that also mentions the start of the new pastoral year, which will “celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the Lithuanian State and the 300^th anniversary of the crowning of the painting of the Virgin in Trakai”, which means that “God’s Mother has always protected our country”. In addition, over these days the country is holding the traditional Week of Pilgrimages to Šiluva, Lithuania’s oldest sanctuary, built in 1457, and the theatre of one of Mary’s first apparitions in Europe, in 1608. “Let’s pray for peace, that the persecution of believers may stop, and victims of war may receive support and justice”, the Bishops go on, and, as they recall St John Paul II’s visit to Šiluva, on September 7^th 1993, they call the faithful not to forget “the Holy Father’s appeal to ask for Mary’s intercession and listen to Pope Francis’s call to pray for peace in these troubled times. Let’s pray our Mother, the patron of Lithuania and the Queen of Peace, confidently and hopefully”.