Praying for George Floyd and all those who suffer from discrimination and violence in the United States, a top US cardinal said Christians cannot hold any hatred or contempt in their heart when it is filled with God’s love.
“If the peace of Christ is truly present in the hearts of believers, there can be no more room for rivalry, for the denial of the dignity of others and for the oppression of others,” said Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who led an evening prayer vigil on 5th June in Rome’s Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere.
“If, in every Christian, there really is a special dwelling place of God, his or her heart will be transformed. In them there cannot be any more feelings of hatred and contempt toward anyone,” and they will only look at every other human being with the same respect and compassion with which God sees everyone, he said.
The vigil was organised by the Community of Sant’Egidio to foster peaceful co-existence in the United States after the death of Floyd and ongoing tensions.
Cardinal Farrell is prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life and served as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington from 2002 to 2007 and bishop of Dallas from 2007 to 2016.
Picture: New York City police officers embrace demonstrators during a protest on 2nd June 2020, following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed African American man whose neck was pinned to the ground by police for more than eight minutes before he was taken to the hospital. (CNS photo/Jeenah Moon, Reuters).
