Pittsburghers Gather To Pray For Peace And Reconciliation
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Not knowing where else to turn, a noon-day crowd gathered at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church downtown Friday to pray for peace and reconciliation while decrying the violence that is ripping the nation.
"And where will it stop? Do we want it to stop? And how can it be stopped?" Bishop David Zubik said.
In his homily, Bishop Zubik told those gathered we must seek common ground and turn away from anger.
"If we see our hearts as weapons the kinds of actions that we see happen in Dallas and St. Paul and Baton Rouge and here in Pittsburgh, they're going to continue," Bishop Zubik said. "But unless we can take a look outside of ourselves and see that what motivates the heart is the power of God's love. Then that's gotta to be the thing that gonna help tear down walls and help build bridges between each other."
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His message seemed to resonate with those who came.
"It's pretty tough times right now, so I thought that the bishop did a great job in expressing that we all gotta change our hearts and accept everybody for whoever they are," Steve Murphy of Upper St. Clair said.
"We're just calling for a lot of prayer and peace and just to be more helpful and loving and caring to one another," Jennifer Lawrenceson of Ohio Township said.
"We need to set aside our prejudices and our differences," worshipper Tanya Adams said. "We're Americans, we need to come together and know that that peace needs to spread from one to another."
The voices for love and reconciliation may be voices that cry out in the desert, but as the Bishop says, they are the only voices that may bring the country together.