Following an al-Qa’ida-affiliated terrorist strike in Somalia, Pope Francis prayed on Sunday for God “change the hearts of the aggressive.”
“As we celebrate Christ’s victory over evil and death, we pray for the victims of the terrorist attack in Mogadishu that resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people, including a large number of children. May God change the hearts of the violent, urged Pope Francis on October 30.
On Saturday, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia said that at least 100 people were killed and almost 300 others were injured when two car bombs exploded in the country’s capital.
According to the Associated Press, al-Shabab, a Somali-based offshoot of al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the attack. The extremist group claimed to have targeted the country’s education ministry, describing it as a “enemy” dedicated to “removing Somali youth from the Islamic faith.”
According to Reuters, the pope prayed at the conclusion of his Angelus talk for the victims of a crowd surge at a huge Halloween festival in South Korea that killed at least 151 people.
“Let us also pray to the Risen Lord for those, largely young people, who tragically perished last night in Seoul as a result of a sudden spike in crowd size,” the pope stated.
In his reflection on Sunday’s Gospel, Pope Francis told the pilgrims assembled in St. Peter’s Square, “Jesus always looks at us with love in life’s most difficult moments.”
The pope stated, “God’s gaze never rests on our error-filled past, but instead looks with great confidence at what we can become.”
On the Gospel of Luke, Jesus glanced up to see Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree, according to the pope.
“This is the history of salvation: God has never looked down on us to humiliate and condemn us; on the contrary, he washed our feet, viewed us from below, and restored our dignity,” he explained.
“In this sense, the eye contact between Zacchaeus and Jesus seems to summarize the entire narrative of salvation: mankind, in its sorrows, seeks redemption, but God, in his kindness, seeks his creature to save it first.”
Pope Francis urged all Christians to have the “compassionate look of Christ, who hugs from below and pursues the lost.”
On October 29 in Medelln, Colombia, the pope applauded the beatification of Blessed Maria Berenice Duque Hencker (1898-1993). According to him, the foundress of the Little Sisters of the Annunciation spent her entire life “in the service of God and her brothers and sisters, especially the smallest and most marginalized.”
“May her apostolic zeal, which led her to transmit the message of Jesus beyond her country’s boundaries, strengthen in all the desire to contribute, through prayer and charity, in spreading the Gospel throughout the world,” Pope Francis stated.