2023-06-18 16:15:00
June 18, 2023 / 9:15 a.m.
At the first Sunday Angelus after being released from Gemelli Hospital, Pope Francis prayed for the young students killed in a “brutal attack” on a school in western Uganda.
The Pontiff urged to pray for peace thinking about “this fight, this war everywhere”.
The Holy Father turned his thoughts to the nearly 41 victims. Among them are 38 young students and 3 teachers from the Lhubiriha secondary school, located in the Ugandan district of Kasese, in the west of the country and two kilometers from the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (FAD) were the ones who provoked the attack on the school that educates children between the ages of 13 and 18, late on Friday, according to what the Ugandan Police reported this Saturday, June 17. The attackers would have fled and the army would be chasing them.
Some of the students were hacked to death, while others died when their dormitories caught fire, CNN reported.
The attack has been condemned in recent hours by the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, the African Union and the European Union.
Shipwreck off the coast of Greece
On the other hand, Pope Francis recalled that “next Tuesday, June 20, World Refugee Day is celebrated, promoted by the United Nations.”
In this sense, he stated with a tremulous voice: “with great sadness and pain I think of the victims of the very serious shipwreck that occurred a few days ago off the coast of Greece, and it seems that the sea was calm.”
“I renew my prayers for those who lost their lives and implore that everything possible be done to prevent this type of tragedy.”
On Friday, June 16, upon leaving the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, after nine days of hospitalization, the Pope also responded to a journalist who asked him about the death of migrants in the shipwreck that occurred in the Aegean Sea, in Greece, on Wednesday. Faced with this, he expressed: “I feel a lot, a lot of pain.”
The message was reiterated by the Pope on Twitter that same day: “I feel great sorrow for the death of migrants, including many children, in the shipwreck that occurred in the Aegean Sea. We must do everything possible so that migrants fleeing war and poverty do not find death while they search for a future of hope”.
The Pontiff had already referred to this sad event in a telegram of condolences sent on Thursday, June 15, on his behalf by Cardinal Parolin, Secretary of State. In it he expressed that he was “deeply shocked” by this “devastating loss of human life” and offered his prayers for all the victims.
At the end of the Angelus this Sunday, the Holy Father greeted the faithful and recommended: “Let us persevere in prayer for the people of the tormented Ukraine, who suffer so much. I wish you all a good Sunday and please don’t forget to pray for me. Good lunch and goodbye!” he concluded.
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