In a prayer for peace on Sunday in Marseille, Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline denounced "
the frightening cynicism
" of the Russian government in Ukraine such as the repression of Rohingya Muslims in Burma or the tragedy of migrants in the Mediterranean.
In his sermon, on the forecourt of the Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica, the Archbishop of Marseille first dwelt on the war in Ukraine and this conflict triggered by "
the invasion of the Russian armies
".
In front of a few hundred people, including representatives of different religions and the left-wing mayor of Marseille Benoît Payan, the cleric stigmatized "
the frightening cynicism
" of the Russian government which, "
by allying with winter
", now takes "
Ukrainian civilians by depriving them of electricity, heating, water and food
", "
in order to punish a people
".
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: Vladimir Putin's worrying headlong rush
But Bishop Aveline also made a point of praying for the Russian people "
because all peoples, whatever their leaders say, often too corrupt to be far-sighted, ask for peace and not war
".
Tribute to NGOs that rescue migrants
Created Cardinal at the end of August at the Vatican, Mgr Aveline, particularly committed to inter-religious dialogue, is considered close to the social line of Argentine Pope Francis.
Scanning all the ongoing conflicts around the world, he spoke of the Uyghurs, “
mainly Muslim Turkic speakers
”, repressed by the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang “
for their ethnicity
”;
the Lebanese people, victims of the “
cynicism of a corrupt political class
”;
“
the bloody conflict
” in Ethiopia;
"
the civil war in Yemen, against a backdrop of rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia
".
Then he insisted on “
the terrible repression
” in Burma, “in
particular
” against the Rohingya Muslims, victims “
of a vast campaign of massacres, rapes and arson carried out by the army
”.
Bishop Aveline also wanted to evoke the tragedy of migrants trying to flee poverty and violence by crossing the Mediterranean, after having failed “
in the hell of Libyan prisons, exploited by unscrupulous mafias
”.
However, these mafias of smugglers are "
protected by agreements with the European Union which make it more and more difficult for the action of NGOs
" active in rescue at sea, accused the Archbishop of Marseilles, paying homage, without the to quote, to these associations like SOS Méditerranée, based in the Phocaean city, which "
are working to rescue these people abandoned on ephemeral boats in the central Mediterranean
".
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