ASIA/KAZAKHSTAN - Bishop Dell'Oro: "We are all children of God"

Wednesday, 2 March 2022 peace wars prayer

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Karaganda (Agenzia Fides) - "Faced with what is happening in Ukraine, I believe that the obligation of each of us must be to offer our neighbor a perspective that is not political. Here in Karaganda there are people of 130 different nationalities: if each of us judged the other on the basis of our own nationality, there would be no peaceful coexistence. As Christians we need to understand what unites us: certainly not nationality, because we are different, but Jesus Christ who is among us unites us. Of course there are divisions and differences, but if we start from these, we will no longer be able to look each other in the eye", reads the message that Bishop Adelio Dell'Oro of Karaganda, in view of the war between Ukraine and Russia to Fides.
The Diocese of Karaganda is also following the invitation of Pope Francis and will celebrate a special day of fasting and prayer for peace today, Ash Wednesday, March 2: "I have personally written to all the parish priests and nuns in the area - the Bishop reports - because, even if we are geographically distant, given the enormous size of our diocese, today we can feel united in prayer and fasting. Tonight, during the celebration of Ash Wednesday Mass, we will repeat the thought that the Pope said on Sunday at the end of the Angelus. In addition, since the beginning of the war, we have been praying the rosary online every evening at 8 p.m. with the sign and call for peace and justice". "The contribution we can make is to pray for our conversion", he adds, "knowing that it is not a revolution or a war that creates a new world, but the change in each of us: When a person looks around and sees others as brothers and sisters, even if only in small ways, they begin to give life to a different world".
"As I said to the parents of a group of disabled young people we serve in the parish, among whom are two Muslim mothers, we are all children of God and when we look at one another we should say to one another: you too are a child of God like me", concludes Dell'Oro. There are four Catholic dioceses in Kazakhstan with a total of 70 parishes. There are 91 priests in the country, including 61 diocesan priests and 30 religious. The Catholics represent a small minority: according to official figures, of the more than 17 million inhabitants of the country, about 26% are Christians and 1% of them are Catholics. (LF-PA) (Agenzia Fides, 2/3/2022)