Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976
for her work for peace in Northern Ireland, met with Vatican officials
and called upon the Holy See to issue a “strong message” in support of
peace in Syria. “I expressed the desire to meet Pope Francis and return home full of hope that a strong message of peace will come from the Holy See in support of peace in Syria,” she told the Fides news agency after she met with Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States.
“During the conversations, we agreed that the Catholic Church must promote a strong message of peace for Syria,” she added. “A very clear message of non-violence and reconciliation are urgently needed as roads to peace … The world needs a message of peace, a word about love towards the enemy and forgiveness. If this message is not spread by the Church, who can offer it?”
Pope Benedict, Pope Francis, and other Vatican officials have repeatedly called for peace in Syria, as Pope Francis discussed in a June 5 address.
The Vatican's permanent observer at the UN, Archbishop Francis Chillikatt, repeated that message in a July 23 address to the Security Council, urging international action to stop the fighting in Syria and speaking of "the unbearable suffering of its people."