Marking the Feast of All Souls on November 2, 2021, His Holiness Pope  Francis celebrated  Holy Mass at the French Military Cemetery in Rome during which he told the faithful to look at the graves of the fallen which speak of a message of peace, saying “Stop, brothers and sisters, stop. Stop weapons manufacturers”.

The Pope called for watching one's steps implying that one should be careful in avoiding perpetration of evil deeds, and stressed that life “is a journey, we are all on a journey.”

Jesus said, "Beware! Don't always be wishing for what you don't have.

Over the past centuries clergymen and clergywomen have been well-known for  striving to alleviate suffering  and to open windows of opportunities for depressed people by creating  a bright future and turning bleakness into brightness.

History abounds with events that provide cogent evidence of this fact where Christian clergy played a  key role in resuscitating  decrepit societies and in restoring normalcy with hopes for better days to come.

Perfect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches Cardinal Leonardo Sandri  is paying  a 10-day visit to Syria on October 25-November 3, 2021.

This overdue visit is a sign of closeness, sympathy, and support for the Syrian people who have been suffering from civil war, violence, displacement, unemployment, and rocketing prices of commodities.

“You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its value, with what will it be salted? (Matthew 5:13).

Good news has emerged from the Holy See which is worth joy and jubilation. It is the announcement that a new Vatican foundation was launched on  October 21, 2021 by Cardinal Gambetti designed to put social justice, solidarity and the construction of the common good at centre-stage.

In a surprising statement but a timely one that  has been made by Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan of Antioch and all the East of the Syriacs to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), he states that Christian emigration from Lebanon urgently needs to be stemmed. He also warned that--with the spiraling economic crisis with more than 50 per cent of the population living below the poverty line accompanied by an upsurge in violence--"if the West fails to help the Christians in Lebanon, the community could soon be extinct."

In his address at the UN General Assembly to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, Holy See Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher noted that this global observance "is an occasion to impress on the world, and particularly on the leaders of nuclear-weapon states, humanity’s insistent demand for the elimination of nuclear weapons and this forum’s many pledges to rid the world of the threat of nuclear war."

Difficult is parting, bitter in taste, painful, leaving scars that may not heal.

Four years have passed with Franciscan nun Sister Gloria Cecelia Narvaez living in captivity. She is finally freed in good health and in sparkling good spirits. Sister Gloria was abducted by extremist gunmen, on February 7, 2017 at Koutiala, close to the border with Burkina Faso, 400 kms from the Capital of Mali. She was held for four years and eight months in captivity.