"I apologize and ask the teacher to continue reading because I am having difficulty breathing ." Thus Pope Francis during the reading of the homily at the Mass for the Jubilee of the Armed Forces, Police and Security , this morning in St. Peter's Square in Rome .
It was then Monsignor Diego Ravelli who continued .
Also present in the square, among the crowd, were the Ministers of Defense and Economy Guido Crosetto and Giancarlo Giorgetti , the Undersecretaries of Defense Matteo Perego di Cremnago and Isabella Rauti, as well as the Chief of Police Vittorio Pisani, the Chief of Defense Staff, General Luciano Portolano and the Chief of the Fire Brigade Eros Mannino.
"Your uniforms, the discipline that has forged you, the courage that distinguishes you, the oath you have taken, are all things that remind you how important it is not only to see evil in order to denounce it, but also to climb into the boat in a storm and commit yourself so that it does not sink, with a mission at the service of good, freedom, and justice", were the words of the Pontiff previously. Who at the Angelus also asked to pray "for peace , in the tormented Ukraine, in Palestine, Israel, Myanmar, throughout the Middle East, in Kivu, in Sudan. May the weapons be silent everywhere and the cry of the peoples, who ask for peace, be heard".
Pope Francis had already renounced the reading of the catechesis of the general audience on Wednesday, February 5, because of bronchitis. Bergoglio, on that occasion, had said he had "a bad cold". He then held the audiences of Friday 7 and Saturday 8 at Casa Santa Marta.
(Unioneonline/vl)
