Bishop prays for peace during Verdun pilgrimage

As a member of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), representing the Irish Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Noel Treanor (Diocese of Down and Connor) was in attendance and offered prayers for the fallen of the war.

Two simple services of prayer were held at the Ossuaire de Douaumont and individual bishops laid votive lamps in the chapel of the Ossuaire where the bones of 130,000 unknown soldiers repose. In the Cathedral Notre-Dame in Verdun the bishops celebrated Vespers for the Dead.

“Our visit marked for us a moment to take spiritual stock as we look back over a century when light and darkness have wrestled in Europe as at no other period in her long, eventful and often tragic past,” explained Bishop Treanor.

“We remember the fallen and are still numbed by recollection of the scale of the human loss the conflict engendered. What strikes us again is the sheer folly of war and the pity of it all.

“We intercede for all the victims of war and armed conflict, military and civilian, and we pray for peace in our world.

“We recall with gratitude the achievements of the European project and the way the vision of the founding fathers of the European Union and those they inspired down the years have contributed to peace and understanding among nations who so often resorted to armed conflict in the past, and still do in our days, as a way of resolving their differences.

“As bishops, from local churches all over Europe, we are conscious that we come from countries in our continent, some of which a century ago and all too frequently even more recently had made war on one another.

“We soberly recall how even churchmen stoked the fires of conflict and fuelled nationalist passion: it is a recollection tinged with regret and shame.

“But we also remember how stoically and persistently Pope Benedict XV advocated cessation of arms and promoted peace.

“Our visit of pilgrimage to Verdun makes us, as bishops, more resolute in our commitment to assist Europe recover the gospel roots of its identity, to appreciate anew the values – many of them profoundly Christian – which bind her as a community, and to promote a future for all Europe’s citizens and for the wider world where peace and justice reign. Inspired by the joy of the gospel message, our gathering closed in hope of a peaceful future for the whole of humanity.”