Scottish Catholic Observer

At a Mass in Remembrance and in Reparation for the First World War at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow last Sunday he said ‘men have not yet fully learned the lessons of the Great War’ as ‘there are wars and conflicts raging even now as we gather at Mass.’

The archbishop said this made it all the more important to remember the sacrifices of those who had perished in the conflict. “We remember the fallen in combat and those other millions who suffered in untold ways the effects of the war,” he said.

“We remember them and we pray for the repose of their souls. You may think that to try to make reparation for such massive loss of life and widespread suffering is a futile project, a mark of hubris even. And it would be if we were making the reparation though our own merits and efforts. But in the Mass, it is Christ who acts.”

As we risk forgetting the horrors of this and other conflicts the archbishop said we must ask God ‘to make up for our blindness and forgetfulness, to bring peace to this world and save us from the horrors of war.’

PIC: PAUL MCSHERRY