Madrid, Spain, Dec 5, 2007 / 13:17 pm
Archbishop Francisco Perez of Pamplona has condemned the recent terrorist attacks in Spain and prayed for the intercession of St. Francis Xavier, patron of the Spanish region of Navarre, to “touch the hearts” of terrorists for their conversion “to love and to peace.”
“We want peace, we want love, and I pray to St. Francis Xavier to touch the hearts of those whose only motto is violence that they may be converted to love and to peace,” the archbishop said during a special Mass, recalling that the saint was “a man passionate for the good” and lived a life “of constant service.”
In the presence of local officials, Archbishop Francisco Perez condemned “the latest terrorist acts which bring man down, scorn the plan of God and corrupt all morals.”
During the Mass, he also prayed for missionary vocations that authentic marriage between a man and a woman be strengthened.
St. Francis Xavier was not troubled “amidst so many difficulties and persecutions and he was sure that the message of evangelization he carried was not an ideology but rather the proclamation of a life of salvation,” the archbishop said.