Nov 26, 2007 / 13:40 pm

The recently created Cardinal Daniel N.DiNardo has said in an interview that both the Israelis and the Palestinians need to treat tomorrow's Annapolis peace summit as an “opportunity that cannot be missed”.

In an interview to be published in tomorrow's daily edition of L'Osservatore Romano, the Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, who was made a cardinal this past Saturday, said that the Church in the US is responding to the Pope’s call to pray for the fruits of the Annapolis summit. The conference will bring together Jews, Palestinians and Syrians for peace talks.

DiNardo related that, “parish communities as well as individual Catholics are praying, at the request of the bishops, so that the summit will become a concrete opportunity for peace between the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples.”

Cardinal DiNardo said that prayer “has a great value, especially for the future. We have been called to persevere in prayer, trusting in God our hope for peace to come in the next weeks and months.  We hope that the conference of Annapolis may promote further fruitful dialogues for peace in the region.”

During the interview, Cardinal DiNardo also said that his appointment as cardinal was received “with gratitude, stun and surprise. For Texas it has been a great joy, which crowns the explosive growth of the local Church in the last 20 years.”