Lebanese Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï, the head of the Maronite Catholic Church, gave the homily and underlined the challenges that the synod assembly has been asked to address, including that of “building a just peace where wars bloody our lands.”
The opening procession for the first liturgy inside St Peter’s Basilica for the Synod on Synodality assembly.
Greek Melkite Patriarch Youssef Absi of Antioch is offering this morning’s liturgy. pic.twitter.com/9yPUHbDEvG
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“The situation of the world of today and the condition of the peoples who are poor, lost, persecuted, discarded, disappointed, innocent victims of wars, homeless, and wounded in their human dignity all truly arouse the compassion of Christ, who chose us one by one to fashion these wounds and to fight for a better world, so as to dwell in our common home in peace and tranquility,” Raï said.
Alluding to the Gospel of Matthew, the patriarch said that “the harvest” of challenges is great, “but the laborers are few.”
????HIGHGLIGHTS | Members of the Synod on Synodality held a Holy Mass according to the Byzantine rite in St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday morning, presided over by Patriarch Youssef Absi, the Greek Melkite Patriarch of Antioch, following the 4th General Congregation. pic.twitter.com/MDlNWY6JIH
— EWTN Vatican (@EWTNVatican) October 9, 2023