VATICAN CITY, SEP 12, 1999 (VIS) - At midday today, after praying the angelus at Castelgandolfo, John Paul II made a fresh appeal for peace in East Timor:
"My thoughts go once again to East Timor where brutal violence persists and intensifies, being practiced even against the Catholic Church which has long been seeking dialogue and reconciliation.
"I must communicate the deep sadness I feel for yet another defeat of any sense of humanity as, on the threshold of the third millennium, fratricidal conflict once again kills and destroys without pity.
"I express once again my total condemnation of the grave abuses of human rights that are being perpetrated in the territory, in a vain attempt to cancel the wishes expressed by the people and their legitimate aspirations.
"I renew my appeal to the politicians and military responsible, as well as the international community, to listen to the cries of the weak and the defenseless and come immediately to their aid.
"Finally, I invite you to pray to the Most Holy Virgin, Queen of peace, for the dead, the injured, the refugees and all those who weep and suffer. May she, who on the day of her Nativity we called "dawn and hope of salvation," be such also for the people of Timor, who do not cease to faithfully await a brighter future."
Afterwards, in greeting the faithful the Pope said, speaking in Portuguese: "In the face of a world marked by growing tensions and hatred, this Sunday's Gospel teaches us to pardon all, as each brother is worth all the Blood of Christ spilt on the Cross."
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