Syracuse Citizens of All Faiths Gather

to Pray for World Peace

Praying for peace

The Carousel Center – a large shopping mall in Syracuse, New York – sits on the southern tip of Onondaga Lake. Customers arrive at its parking lots by the thousands, all intent on this or that item or simply just to window shop. For many teenagers the Carousel Center is a place of escape. Here they meet their friends and while the time away at the food court or the cinema.

The Carousel Center in Syracuse, New York

Some of these teenagers and shoppers in general might have been surprised to find a crowd of roughly 150 people gathered in the mall’s commons area praying for peace on a Thursday afternoon last month. This spiritual event marked the twenty-second anniversary of Pope John Paul the Second’s invitation to the leaders and members of all faiths to meet him in Assisi, Italy (the home of St. Francis) and pray for a world without war or aggression.

Onondaga Lake

Keeping with the Franciscan theme, a Conventual Franciscan Friar – Joe Freitag – hosted the Syracuse event. Representatives of other faiths stood alongside Friar Joe. World peace is a dream most of us hold dear, no matter what our faith might be.

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