At the conclusion of the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis continues to ask us to pray for peace. He asks twice for the tormented Ukraine, "which suffers so much", the Democratic Republic of Congo's north, Palestine, and Israel. The Pope looks at an Israeli flag waving among the faithful in St. Peter's Square. He says he saw it in the morning hanging from a balcony on his way back from the Church of the Holy Forty Martyrs and San Pasquale Baylon in Rome's Trastevere neighborhood: "It is a call to peace!". The Pontiff also requests the Holy Spirit's intercession on the powerful of the earth so that peace can be negotiated: "May the Holy Spirit enlighten the minds of rulers, instilling in them wisdom and a sense of responsibility, to avoid any action or word that feeds confrontation and instead to aim decisively at a peaceful resolution to conflicts".
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