Pope calls for Middle East peace

July 24, 2006

Pope Benedict XVI called on people of all religions to join Sunday's worldwide day of prayers for peace on Friday July 21, 2006.

The Pope spent an hour hiking in the Big Paradise National Park, returning to his mountain retreat just as rain started to fall. He said the gorgeous mountain vistas further impressed on him the gravity of the crisis.

"I think it is best to leave that to the diplomats, because we don't enter politics. But we do everything for peace. Our goal is simply peace, and we will do everything to help attain peace," Pope Benedict XVI said, after he returned from an hour-long hike in the Italian Alps.

"Especially from Lebanon, who implored us, as they have implored the Italian government, to help." "We will help with our prayers and with the people we have in Lebanon," said the pope.

"Seeing this peace that God gives me, I am even more struck by the suffering of many others," he said.

People around the world prayed for peace. In Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl, repeated the Vatican's call for an immediate cease-fire.