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Participants in the Divine Mercy Congress Pray for Peace at Birkenau
The silent march and prayer for peace on the grounds of the former German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau were part of the World Congress of Divine Mercy being held in Kraków-Łagiewniki.
About 1,500 people from dozens of different countries walked from the so-called Death Gate, along the railroad unloading platform or ramp where trains stopped and deportees underwent selection when the camp was in operation, to the ruins of the crematoria and gas chambers. There, at the monument to the victims of the camp, the congregation, representing all the continents in the world, lit candles. Prayers for mercy and peace for the whole world were then said.
Bishop Tadeusz Rakoczy celebrated Mass. In his address to the faithful, the bishop of the Bielsko-Żywiec diocese recalled the figure of the Blessed Karol Wojtyła who made many pilgrimages to the place he referred to as the “Calvary of our times.” “When he became pope, he said here on June 7, 1979 that he could not fail to come here as pope. I think that you too can say today that we could not fail to come here,” said Rakoczy, quoting John Paul II.
Alluding to the Congress theme of Mercy the Source of Hope, Rakoczy noted that peace among nations, different cultures, and religions flows from the Divine Mercy. “After all, we are all children of one God, one Father. Opus misericordiae pax! Peace is the work of mercy,” he said.
Also present at the observances were the founders of the Congress, Christoph Cardinal Schoenborn the archbishop of Vienna and Stanisław Cardinal Dziwisz the archbishop of Cracow. The previous Congress was held three years ago in Rome.
