Cease Fire

"Pope leads day of prayer, renews call for ceasefire
VATICAN CITY, July 24 (CNA) - Pope Benedict XVI, making his Angelus address from the mountain retreat in the Italian Alps where he is vacationing, led Catholics in a worldwide day of prayer and penance for peace in the Middle East. The Pope reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire and his insistence on the rights Lebanese, Israelis, and Palestinians.

Pope Benedict reminded the thousands of pilgrims and local residents at Les Combes in the Italian region of Valle d'Aosta that, following the worsening of the situation in the Middle East, he had proclaimed this Sunday as a special day of prayer and penance, inviting pastors, faithful and all believers to implore from God the gift of peace. The Holy Father said: 'I forcibly renew my appeal to the conflicting parties to begin an immediate cease-fire, to allow the passage of humanitarian aid and, with the support of the international comm! unity, to seek ways to begin negotiations.

'I take this opportunity,' he added, 'to reiterate the right of the Lebanese to the integrity and sovereignty of their country, of the Israelis to live in peace in their State, and of the Palestinians to have their own free and sovereign homeland.'

The Holy Father expressed his particular closeness to the 'defenseless civilian population, unjustly involved in a conflict of which they are only victims: both those in Galilee who are forced to live in shelters, and the great multitudes of Lebanese who, once again, are seeing their country destroyed and have been forced to abandon everything to seek refuge elsewhere.

'I raise a sorrowful prayer to God that the vast majo! rity of people's aspiration"