Local Holy Hour scheduled: Peace is built on respect for all people

“I call on people of faith and all men and women of good will to ardently pray that we, as an international community, may develop the courage to pursue an authentic, transformative, and lasting peace,” said Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He asked policymakers to pursue diplomatic negotiations, citing the expiration of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) on February 5. New START is the last major nuclear arms control pact signed by the United States and Russia.

Archbishop Coakley continued, “I call upon policymakers to courageously pursue diplomatic negotiations to maintain New START’s limits, opening pathways toward disarmament. International policy disagreements, as serious as they are, cannot be used as excuses for diplomatic stalemates; on the contrary, they should spur us on to more vehemently pursue effective engagement and dialogue. May the Prince of Peace enlighten our hearts and minds to pursue peace around the world in a spirit of universal fraternity.” In response to a separate invitation by Archbishop Coakley, Bishop Scott Bullock will offer a Holy Hour for Peace at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Rapid City, on Thursday, February 26 at 6 p.m. It will also be live streamed at rapidcitydiocese. org/live and on our Facebook page. (Check with your parish to find out if a holy hour is scheduled for peace.)

January 25, in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, Pope Leo XIV called for prayers for peace. “Peace is built on respect for people!” he said. “In Ukraine, in the Middle East and in every region where, unfortunately, there is fighting going on for interests that are not those of the people. The continuation of hostilities, with increasingly serious consequences for civilians, widens the rift between peoples and pushes further back the opportunity for a just and lasting peace,” he said, inviting everyone “to intensify their efforts to end this war.”

Contributing to this article were Catholic New Service, the USCCB and WRC