By editor - 25 July, 2016
Pope Francis on Sunday called for prayers and solidarity following the “dramatic events in Munich, Germany, and Kabul, Afghanistan, where the lives of numerous innocent people have been lost.”
Following the Angelus, the Pope appealed to people to join him in prayer “that the Lord might inspire in everyone intentions of goodness and fraternity.”
“At this time, our spirit is once more shaken by the sad news relating to the deplorable acts of terrorism and violence which have caused suffering and death,” he said.
The more “difficulties might seem insurmountable, and prospects of security and peace seem obscure,” he said, “the more insistent must our prayer be.”
The 18-year-old German-Iranian gunman, identified as David Sonboly, who killed nine people in Munich on Friday began planning the attack a year ago.
Reports suggest he hatched his deadly plan after visiting the German city of Winnenden where another teenager killed 15 people in 2009.
Materials found at the gunman’s home show he had been an avid player of violent video games.
In a telegram addressed to Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the Archbishop of Munich, Pope Francis expressed his condolences to the families of the victims of the attack.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said Pope Francis “shares in the pain of the survivors and expresses to them his closeness in suffering,” and “entrusts the departed, in prayer, to the mercy of God.”
The Pope also thanked emergency service personnel and security forces for “their attentive and generous service.”
Cardinal Parolin concluded the telegram with the Pope’s prayer that Christ “the Lord of Life” might “give comfort and consolation to all.”
Meanwhile, on Saturday, two ISIS suicide bombers attacked a crowd of peaceful protesters in the Afghan capital, Kabul killing at least 80 and wounding more than 200.
Most of the protesters were members of the ethnic Hazara minority.
