“Only fraternity can stop the violence”: during a prayer vigil, some 400 believers of all faiths took communion with gravity on Tuesday for peace in Ukraine, in the Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde in Marseille.
“For the people of Marseilles of all religious convictions, each time something important happens, it is here that, discreetly, humbly, we come”, preached Mgr Jean-Marc Aveline, the archbishop of Marseille, in front of the crowd massed in the heart of this “Good mother” which dominates the Marseille city, with its Virgin visible from the sea.
Too small, the basilica had opened the doors of its crypt. And the faithful, including nuns, veils on their heads, huddled on the benches of the sanctuary, under its illuminated domes covered with gold leaf.
“The Ukrainian people keep the military front, we keep the spiritual front to fight evil, lies. We must pray for peace in the whole world”, chained, dressed in a black alb, Mykola Hryvnak, chaplain of the Ukrainian community of Marseilles, while a Ukrainian flag was stretched in front of the altar.
“Only fraternity can stop violence. (…) When it comes to the lives of men and women, the affection of one and the other always ends up meeting”, insisted Mgr Aveline during a reading interspersed with songs, sometimes in the Ukrainian language.
Facing the faithful, candles in hand, the Archbishop asked the “Lord to be with the Ukrainians who are suffering”, the peoples of the Baltic States, Belarus, Poland, but also with “the Russian people, whom he should not be confused with its leaders”.
“I am here to support the Ukrainian people with prayer. Faith is a way to help them,” insisted Tony Salemeh, 62, who had taken his place in a side bay of the chapel lined with ex-votos. in memory of sailors lost at sea.
“I came out of solidarity with the Ukrainian people. What matters is that this conflict ends,” said another believer, Georges Gasperini, who hopes, through “communion, to bring peace”.
“Long live Ukraine!” Bishop Aveline added in French and Ukrainian, before Ukrainians brought red roses to the altar.
“Tonight we are going to continue to pray and we will not stop there, we will continue, we will continue”, concluded the archbishop at the end of a celebration which was to continue until midnight with “an adoration of the Blessed Sacrament”. .
