Vatican City, Jun 14, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Joaquin Navarro-Valls, Director of the Press Office of the Holy See released a statement yesterday calling for an end to the escalating violence in the Holy Land.
Speaking on behalf of the Holy See and Pope Benedict, Navarro-Valls said that, “The Holy See is following with great concern and anguish the episodes of increasing mindless violence which are bloodying the Holy Land over these days.”
Pope Benedict, Navarro-Valls said, is “close, especially in prayer, to the innocent victims, their relatives and to the peoples of that land.” He called the ones causing terror in the holy land self-delusional people who think that, “they can resolve the ever more dramatic problems of the region with force or unilaterally.”
Issuing a plea for action, Navarro-Valls said, "The Holy See invites the international community quickly to activate the means necessary for providing due humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people, and joins the call to leaders of both peoples, that in the first place due respect be shown for human life, especially that of defenseless civilians and children, and that the path of negotiation be courageously resumed, the only way to arrive at the just and lasting peace to which everyone aspires."