Pope Leo sets Aug 22 as day of fasting, prayers for peace
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Pope Leo XIV’s first known phone call with a foreign leader in May was to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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VATICAN CITY – Pope Leo XIV has asked Catholics and other religious faithful to observe a day of fasting and prayers for peace in the Middle East, Ukraine and other war-torn areas of the world on Aug 22.
“As our earth continues to be wounded by wars in the Holy Land, in Ukraine, and in many other regions, I invite all the faithful to live the day of Aug 22 in fasting and prayer,” the pontiff said during his weekly audience at the Vatican on Aug 20.
He suggested the faithful could ask God to “grant us peace and justice, and to wipe away the tears of those who suffer because of the ongoing armed conflicts”.
Pope Leo, the first US pope
He has made several appeals to end the war in Ukraine during the first months of his papacy, and his first known phone call with a foreign leader in May was to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who the Pope also met in person in July.
Catholics have a practice of fasting on or before important spiritual holidays as a way of coming closer to God in prayer.
Pope Francis previously called a special day of fasting and prayer last October, on the one-year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war. REUTERS
