Troops of E Company, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division, wade onto the Fox Green section of Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944. Credit: Chief Robert F. Sargent/US Coast Guard.
Posted on 06/06/2014 3:55:20 PM PDT by NYer
.- In a letter sent Friday to French bishops, Pope Francis paid homage to the men who fought in the D-Day invasion of Normandy 70 years ago, which was one of the key turning points in World War II.
“His Holiness Pope Francis unites himself wholeheartedly to the intercession of those who commemorate the tragic events which occurred here seventy years ago, and prays for peace,” read the letter sent June 6 by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, to Bishop Jean-Claude Boulanger of Bayeux (-Lisieux), in whose territory the Normandy landing occurred.
On June 6, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy to begin the liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation. As many as 13,000 soldiers died that day.
The Pope's message commended the sacrifice of those who “left their homeland to land on the beaches of Normandy, with the aim of combating Nazi barbarity, freeing occupied France,” and also urged that we “not forget the German soldiers driven into this drama, like all victims of this war.”
“It is fitting that today's generations express their full appreciation to those who accepted such a great sacrifice.”
By the message, which was sent also to Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris, Pope Francis took the opportunity to encourage Europe to remember and appreciate its Christian roots.
He wrote that “this commemoration reminds us that the exclusion of God from the lives of persons and societies can bring only death and suffering.”
“The European nations can find in the Gospel of Christ, the prince of peace, the root of their history, and the source of inspiration for the establishment of ever more links of fraternity and solidarity.”
The message concluded by entrusting the cause of peace to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
D-day Ping!
God bless Pope Francis! He’s a kind, humble and thoughtful man.
He’s a head of state! Was he invited?
How I would have loved the Pope to have stood beside all those people. Next to the Queen!
Beggin' pardon and all, but those weren't "tragic events."
They made up one of humanity's finest days, in which literally satanic evil was fought and defeated, and the beginning of freedom was established for hundreds of millions of people.
"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."
- John 15:13
Was he chewing him?
At every Catholic mass we pray for the soldiers that have died defending the country. At many Catholic cathedrals there are plaques commemorating and honoring all the Catholic soldiers from the diocese that have died in war.
I guess folks have learned not to put countries into a corner from which there is nothing but suffering, with no way out.
BTTT!
That said, don't you think it could reasonably be viewed as tragic if 13,000 sons, brothers and dads never returned home, just because some bigoted socialist megalomaniac and his thug buddies had managed to highjack a country that was down on its luck, take over much of a continent and menace the whole world?
That said, don't you think it could reasonably be viewed as tragic if 13,000 sons, brothers and dads never returned home, just because some bigoted socialist megalomaniac and his thug buddies had managed to highjack a country that was down on its luck, take over much of a continent and menace the whole world?
I suppose my age is catching up to me when I say, at this point in my life, no, I don't think that's a reasonable way to view it.
We are taught to strive for peace. But we are also taught that this world is not a place of peace. So being disciplined about what to grieve for is important, I think. We're all going to die, there's no escape. So ust as not dying is not a realistic goal, dying per se is not a tragic end. What matters is what one lives for, and how one dies - before God, not before anyone else.
The men who died on D-Day died fighting evil, and demonstrably helped free an entire world. Not one of them wanted to die that day. But I also believe that not one of them would have wanted to die with less meaning for why they died, and what they were doing when they died.
I can and do grieve over the fact of war. But I do the same over death by any means. The shame of war is that it is usually the result of a buildup of failed spiritual tests, usually by millions of people over decades or centuries, allowing the creation and strengthening of evil until it erupts. Who looks at moral degredation and sees eventual war as springing from it? Who looks at spiritual tests, and thinks,there's no avoiding this, if I don't get it right nw it's going to come back into my life in a worse way? Few, if any. And those who do are marginalized because they make the rest uncomfortable.
You know what I dream of? Not a world free from strife, because I don't believe that's possible. Rather I dream of a world where great heroes, like those who waded ashore 70 years ago on those beaches, are no longer needed - because the world is filled will small heroes. Heroes of daily life, who hold themselves in check, who refuse to lie to themselves, who reject evil on a small level, on a personal level, before it can grow into a bonfire, and the bonfire can grow into a conflagration that threatens the world - yet again.
If I grieve for anything, it's that we still seem so far away from such a world.
God Bless Pope Francis, he never forgot!
That is a good dream.
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