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On a one-day trip to Luxembourg, Pope Francis called for peacemakers, saying his host country “has a history of being a builder of peace.”
Arriving in Luxembourg on September 26, 2024, Pope Francis called for an end to the tragedy of war, condemning the “irresponsible return to the same mistakes of the past.”
On the first day of his apostolic journey, which will also take him to Belgium, the Pope devoted his morning to the leaders of the Grand Duchy.
He first met Grand Duke Henri, who introduced him to his family, including many children, and then had a brief private meeting with him. The Grand Duke then showed the Pontiff the golden rose given in 1956 by Pope Pius XII to his grandmother, Grand Duchess Charlotte, and presented him with a painted engraving of the Virgin and Child from the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Luxembourg dating from the 18th century.
Later, addressing some 300 politicians, diplomats, members of civil society, and religious representatives, the Pope emphasized that “war is always a defeat.”
He lamented that “we are seeing the re-emergence, even on the European continent, of rifts and enmities that, instead of being resolved on the basis of mutual goodwill, negotiation and diplomatic efforts, are resulting in open hostilities, leading to destruction and death. It seems that the human heart does not always remember the past and periodically goes astray and returns to the tragic path of war. How forgetful we are of this.”
After lunch, Pope Francis stopped at a coffee shop near the Archbishop’s residence, where he had coffee with some staff. Along the way he met and blessed a pregnant woman. He then returned to the residence.
Catholic community
Pope Francis was welcomed in the afternoon at Notre-Dame Cathedral of Luxembourg with a song sung in English by an assembly where many nationalities were represented.
A dance titled “Laudato si,’” inspired by the Pope’s encyclical and the life of St. Francis of Assisi was performed.
“Our faith is like this: It is joyful, ‘dancing,’ because it tells us that we are children of a God who is the friend of man, who wants us happy and united, and who cannot be more joyful than by our salvation,” he said, referring to the famous dancing procession of Echternach, a Catholic festival in Luxembourg that is part of UNESCO’s world heritage list.
The pontiff recalled the words spoken by John Paul II in 1985 before the youth of Luxembourg, calling for a Europe not only of goods but of values. At the heart of these Christian roots, the Argentine Pope insisted on the defense of welcoming one’s neighbor, considering it more “a duty of justice than of charity.”
Earlier in the day he had noted his own particular emphases on two elements of the Church’s social doctrine: “care for creation and fraternity.”
Indeed, for development to be authentic and integral, we must not plunder or degrade our common home. Likewise, we must not abandon peoples or social groups on the margins, for we are all brothers and sisters.
A golden rose for Our Lady, Consoler of the Afflicted
Before leaving, the Pope prayed before a representation of the Virgin Mary, Consoler of the Afflicted, who became the country’s patron saint in 1666.
One of Luxembourg’s most important religious festivals, the Octave, is directly linked to the veneration of this Madonna, and was launched in 1624 by a Jesuit priest, Father Jacques Brocquart.
The pontiff solemnly opened the Marian Jubilee celebrating 400 years of this event with a prayer, and then placed a golden rose at the foot of the statue. The golden rose is an ornament with which the popes originally honored Catholic sovereigns – Archduchess Charlotte of Luxembourg being the last recipient in 1956 – and since then it has mainly been bestowed on Marian shrines or places of veneration.
At the end of the audience, Cardinal Hollerich announced that following a collection in the diocese, the faithful had raised 176,000 euros to donate to Pope Francis’ charity. Pope Francis in turn decided to give this sum to the local Caritas, which recently fell victim to a financial scam and lost a large part of its resources.
A spiritual landmark in Luxembourg
The Cathedral of Notre-Dame du Luxembourg, located in the heart of the city, was originally a baroque church built by the Jesuits in 1613, consecrated and dedicated to the Immaculate Conception in 1621. [The cathedral is seen in the top picture of this article.]
In 1794, the building became the home of the miraculous statue of Our Lady, Consoler of the Afflicted.
The church was elevated to cathedral status in 1870 by Pope Pius IX, and restored in the 1930s and 1960s in late Gothic style before being rededicated in 1963. The crypt of this building is the resting place of the Grand Dukes of Luxembourg.
Pope Francis went on to Brussels this evening, the second and main leg of his trip.
And today we celebrate...