{"id":5679,"date":"2026-05-12T21:12:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T21:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/?p=5679"},"modified":"2026-05-17T13:28:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T13:28:18","slug":"our-lady-of-fatima-and-a-prayer-for-world-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/our-lady-of-fatima-and-a-prayer-for-world-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Lady of Fatima and a Prayer for World Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As we live through this Marian month of May, we once again contemplate a world filled with fear and uncertainty. Wars continue in many parts of the world, and human life and dignity are being destroyed. The war between Russia and Ukraine, the conflict between Israel and Palestine, the tensions and armed clashes in the Middle East and in many other countries around the world, continue to cause countless victims.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

By Kyoung Ho Han *<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the world is becoming increasingly unstable not only because of military conflicts, but also because of hatred, division, extreme ideological confrontations, populism, and struggles for economic domination. People speak of peace, yet at the same time they continue to wield superior weapons and overwhelming force. In such a time, we are invited to reflect deeply on what it means to live as missionaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A missionary is not simply someone who goes to a distant country to preach the Gospel. A missionary is one who bears witness to God\u2019s mercy and hope in places marked by human suffering and wounds. Therefore, in this age of war and division, the missionary vocation becomes even clearer: to defend human dignity amid violence and hatred, to proclaim reconciliation and peace, and to walk with people so that they may not lose hope even in the midst of despair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Father Kyoug Ho Han celebrates Mass in the Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima, in 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Today the Church must once again proclaim the Gospel truth that \u201cwar cannot stop war.\u201d Modern war is no longer a problem limited to one nation alone. In the age of nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction, drones, and cyber warfare, war has become a disaster threatening all humanity. Countless children and civilians are dying, refugees are forced to leave their homes, and humanity itself is being wounded. Before such realities, missionaries cannot remain silent. Peace is not merely the absence of war; it is a way of life in which human beings recognize and respect one another as brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Missionaries must also cherish the values of democracy and human dignity. Democracy is not merely a political system, but a culture of listening to one another, protecting the rights of the weak, and taking shared responsibility for the common good. Hatred, fear, authoritarianism, and violence, on the contrary, turn human beings into enemies and nourish a culture of war. For this reason, the mission for peace cannot remain only at the level of prayer. It must also include education for peace, dialogue for reconciliation, solidarity with the poor and wounded, and concrete acts of care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this time, we especially remember May 13th, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. In 1917 in Fatima, Portugal, Our Lady appealed to a world wounded by war and confusion, calling humanity to conversion, prayer, and peace. She warned that human pride and hatred would bring even greater destruction, and she asked for the Rosary and a life of repentance for the sake of peace. Perhaps today\u2019s world needs once again the message of Fatima more urgently than ever before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world today is once again trapped in the logic of force and power. Yet Our Lady shows us another way: the way of humility, prayer, reconciliation, and hope. Beneath the Cross, Mary did not lose hope but waited faithfully for the dawn of the Resurrection. For this reason, she continues to come to humanity as the Mother of Peace in a world wounded by war and despair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As missionaries, we must now pray even more fervently for peace: for peace in the world, for Ukraine and Palestine, for the Middle East and Africa, and for the conversion of hearts filled with hatred and violence. We must pray that there may be more hands embracing the wounded rather than producing weapons. We must pray that political leaders may choose dialogue and responsibility instead of domination and power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, believers throughout the world are called to become pilgrims of peace. In a world marked by war and division, we must never abandon the possibility of reconciliation, forgiveness, dialogue, and encounter. The missionary is precisely the one who bears witness to this hope: the one who speaks of hope when despair deepens, chooses love when hatred grows, and proclaims peace when the sounds of war become louder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this Marian month of May, we once again turn to Our Lady in prayer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cO Mary, Queen of Peace of Fatima,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

pray for this world wounded by war and hatred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guide humanity to choose dialogue and reconciliation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

instead of weapons and violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grant true peace to the world,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and shine the light of hope upon all who suffer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Help all of us to become peacemakers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and to welcome one another as brothers and sisters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in the love of the Gospel. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Father Kyoung Ho Han, IMC, member of the National Reconciliation Commission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we live through this Marian month of May, we once again contemplate a world filled with fear and uncertainty. Wars continue in many parts of the world, and human life and dignity are being destroyed. The war between Russia and Ukraine, the conflict between Israel and Palestine, the tensions and armed clashes in the Middle East and in many other countries around the world, continue to cause countless victims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5680,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,7,318,16],"tags":[430,83,320],"class_list":["post-5679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-featured","category-featured-articles","category-prayer","category-spirituality","tag-our-lady-of-fatima","tag-peace","tag-prayer"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5679"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5685,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5679\/revisions\/5685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consolataafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}