Pope Francis has recalled Pius XII's prayer to the Virgin Mary on the eve of the liberation of Rome on June 4 and 5, 1944, so that the city would not be destroyed by the fighting between the German army and the Allied forces. In a letter addressed on June 4 to Bishop Baldassare Reina, Vicegerent for the Diocese of Rome, he prayed for the countries “where weapons still ring out and human blood continues to flow.”
On June 4, 1944, Pope Pius XII and the Catholics of Rome invoked Our Lady of Divine Love “when the frontal confrontation between the German army and the Anglo-American allies was about to take place there,” the Pope recalls in his letter.
The city of Rome was finally surrendered by the Germans without a fight, and Roman Catholics saw this as a miracle of the Virgin Mary.
A call for peace
“Eighty years later, the memory of this event, so rich in meaning, should be an occasion for prayer for those who lost their lives in the Second World War and for renewed meditation on the terrible scourge of war,” writes Pope Francis, lamenting the many conflicts around the world.
“I am thinking in particular of martyred Ukraine, of Palestine and Israel, of Sudan, and of Myanmar, where weapons still ring out and human blood continues to flow,” says the head of the Catholic Church, who renews this intention publicly several times a month. “They are dramas that touch countless innocent victims, whose cries of terror and suffering call out to the consciences of all: We cannot and must not give in to the logic of weapons!”
He goes on to add that peace is “a gift from God which should find, even today, hearts that are open to welcome it and to work to be agents of reconciliation and testimonies of hope.”
To this end, the Pope reminds the people of Rome and the world that fraternity is an “essential condition for solving conflicts and hostility.”
We can only be peacemakers if, “with courage and meekness,” we strive to “create bonds, to establish relationships among people, and to reduce tensions in our family, at work, at school, and among our friends.”
Pope Francis concludes by asking the Blessed Virgin Mary, “Mediatrix of grace,” to “obtain for all of humanity the gift of concord and peace.”
