Paris… Only love can conquer hate: Fr Paddy O’Kane

Last Saturday, someone placed the French flag in the grip of the ‘Hands Across the Foyle’’ statue of reconciliation at the end of the Craigavon Bridge. It was all over Facebook.

That image reflected the feeling of unity felt throughout the world with the people of France in their pain after last Friday night’s horror.

Cities around the world draped themselves in the red, white and blue of the French tricolour in solidarity with Paris.

From the arch at Wembley stadium and the Ulster Hall in Belfast, to the sails of the Sydney Opera House, and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, lights projected the French national colours onto buildings.

Vigils took place throughout the world with many carrying hand-made signs reading ‘Don’t be afraid’ and ‘Pray for Paris’.

At the Cathedral of Notre Dame a ceremony took place on Sunday evening where Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, said that the French must meet the ‘violence of men’ without hatred- despite the ‘particular savagery’ of the terrorist attacks.

He said: “We pray for hope, not hate. The main purpose of us meeting is to pray for the dead, their relatives, the wounded, our country.”

"Men and women were savagely and anonymously executed. No one could have known it would be them.

"Our assembly tonight is here to share the pain of their families, their friends, to pray for them and for the city of Paris," he said at the beginning of the Mass attended by tens of thousands.

“May the moderation, temperance and control that has been shown so far, be confirmed in the weeks and months to come; let no one indulge in panic or hatred,” he wrote.

“We ask that grace be the artisan of peace. We need never despair of peace if we build on justice.”

“I invite the Catholics of France, to be artisans of peace, unity and witnesses of hope, in their prayers, words and actions.

“We know evil will not have the last word,” he continued.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis used his weekly Angelus address in St Peter’s Square on Sunday to assert that using violence in God’s name was blasphemous.

"I want to vigorously reaffirm that the path of violence and hate does not resolve the problems of humanity. And that to use the name of God to justify this path is blasphemy,” he said.

A few random thoughts in conclusion.

I love the sparkle of Paris and the beautiful people and country of France.

The love affair began when I spent the month of July there in 1972 on a French scholarship. It continued over the years with frequent pilgrimages to the shrines of France and to Lourdes.

Think of the many great saints it has produced such as St. Therese of Liseaux, the Cure of Ars, St. Joan of Arc and St. Vincent De Paul.

My thoughts are also with St John Paul who, together with the French, condemned the Invasion of Iraq many years ago, much to the annoyance of the United States. This ham-fisted operation looking for ‘weapons of mass destruction’, which did not exist, has led to the rise of Isis.

Bush and Blair were like two reckless skiers causing an avalanche’ is how I have heard their invasion described.

Pope John Paul also apologised to the Muslin world for the harm done by the Crusades which Isis still uses in its radicalisation of the youth and in their anti-Western propaganda.

‘Let France and all nations know that… the scent of death will not leave their noses as long as they partake in these Crusades’ Isis warned last week.

My appropriate word of wisdom this week comes from Martin Luther King Jnr. ‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that’.