Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, O.F.M., said that “we must therefore keep the liturgy and prayer at the center of the life of our communities. Not just prayers for peace—which also need to be promoted—but prayer as a constant and enduring atmosphere of life, giving shape to our days, our weeks, our communities.”

“I am thinking in particular of the Liturgy of the Hours prayed in community, of lectio divina, of Eucharistic adoration: not practices for specialists, but simple and profound expressions of the Church’s prayer, capable of inserting our daily life—with all its fears and expectations—into a living relationship with God,” he continued. “Let us make prayer the beating heart of our parishes, our families, our schools.”

Stepanakert is a city in Nagorno-Karabakh, an historic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan that Armenians call Artsakh.

“It is obvious that the Azerbaijani government continues to target Armenian Christian holy sites with the aim of erasing the Armenian trace from Artsakh,” the Armenian Apostolic Church said in a statement. “This state-level vandalism once again proves that Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policy has not changed.”

The Armenian Apostolic Church (CNEWA profile) is among the Oriental Orthodox churches that ceased to be in full communion with the Holy See following the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451).

The bishops said that they “turn to the Lord in prayer and stand in solidarity with all those suffering from devastating violence, instability and injustice in the Holy Land, Lebanon, Iran and the wider Middle East region. In particular, we remember the Christian communities, whose presence in these lands, where our faith has its roots, remains a powerful testimony of perseverance, resilience and hope.”

The bishops also visited two Christian villages in Northern Cyprus, which has been under Turkish military occupation since 1974. At the Maronite co-cathedral in one of the villages, Archbishop Selim Sfeir preached that “we desire more than ever the full return of our villages and our places of divine worship, and we renew our firm commitment, with great determination and continuous effort, to achieve this return in a spirit of responsibility, perseverance, and cooperation.”

At his general audience today, Pope Leo XIV spoke about his recent apostolic journey to four African nations.