I hope this isn’t supposed to serve as some sort of a bad sign.
It started out with some thoughtful words on Sunday as the Pope appealed for “constructive dialogue” and peace in Ukraine, in the wake of ongoing protests and escalating tensions there.
From Reuters:
Pope Francis called on Sunday for an end to violence in Ukraine after at least three people were killed during the latest clashes in the two-month crisis.Police and demonstrators in Kiev clashed again on Sunday as protests against President Viktor Yanukovich’s abrupt turn away from the European Union towards Russia, Ukraine’s former Soviet overlord.”I am close to Ukraine in prayer, in particular to those who have lost their lives in recent days and to their families,” Pope Francis said in his weekly Angelus in St Peter’s Square.”I hope that a constructive dialogue between the institutions and civil society can take place, that any resort to violence is avoided and that the spirit of peace and a search for the common good is in the hearts of all.”
Shortly thereafter, children standing alongside the Pope on either side released two white doves in a symbolic gesture of peace.
But that quickly went awry when two larger birds immediately attacked the doves.
From the Associated Press via CBS News:
Two white doves that were released by children standing alongside Pope Francis as a peace gesture have been attacked by other birds.As tens of thousands of people watched in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, a seagull and a large black crow swept down on the doves right after they were set free from an open window of the Apostolic Palace.One dove lost some feathers as it broke free from the gull. But the crow pecked repeatedly at the other dove.
The AP reports that it was not known what happened to the doves after they flew off and out of the view of spectators.
The Telegraph has photos of the incident.
(Featured image: Daily Mail video)
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