Yesterday Pope Francis launched a global strike of prayer and fasting for peace in Syria. He led a prayer vigil at St Peter’s, which was watched by hundreds of millions on television.

The deadline of this column does not permit me to comment on the actual event. However, the strong and courageous position taken by the Pope supported by so many Churchmen and women shows there is a very clear Catholic position on the conflict in general and on the possible military intervention in particular.

The Pope’s Angelus message last Sunday and letter to the G20 leaders shows that this position emanates from the Church’s solidarity for humanity. The horror that is Syria was well described by Pope Francis: “Those terrible images from recent days are burned into my mind and heart.”

Cynics will probably say that weapons are definitively more effective than prayers and fasting. Such an attitude reminds one of Joseph Stalin’s sarcastic question to the French politician Pierre Laval: “How many divisions does the Pope possess?”

The answer to that question is both nothing and many. That the Pope does not have an army of soldiers is common knowledge. But considering that humanity has a deep-seated yearning for what is right, it surely follows that brute force is not the only force that counts.

Men and women of all faiths believe, for instance, that prayer and fasting are strong weapons. When the disciples of Jesus could not liberate a young man from an evil spirit, Jesus told them: “This kind of spirit cannot be driven away if not by prayer and fasting.”

It was this belief that made Pope Francis launch this day of fasting and prayer. It is this position that recently made him tell Arabic-speaking Christians: “Faith is a potent force capable of making the world a more just and beautiful place.”

Those who think this is a different kind of conflict than that the disciples encountered will perhaps benefit from the statement of a small community of Syrian Trappist nuns. After strongly condemning the possibility of a US-led military intervention they added: “It isn’t he [Obama] who is ‘the great one’, it is the Evil One who these days is really acting up.”

Likewise, I believe that the presence in the world of the Evil One – in different forms – is forgotten or ridiculed only at our own expense. Prayer and fasting not only remind us of this reality but strengthen us to combat it.

“The problem is the nuns put their finger on the heart of the matter by pointing to the duplicity of humans who perorate as if the reasons manifestly given are the only or the main reasons that animate their actions. The Syrian nuns rightly say that ‘it has become too easy to pass lies off as noble gestures, to pass ruthless self-interest off as a search for justice, to pass the need to appear [strong] and to wield power off as a moral responsibility not to look away’.”

What has impressed me most in the current debate is the position against military intervention taken by many Church people living in the area. It is not that they believe that Bashar al-Assad is right or that they do not want – were it possible – to wipe the slate clean and put the clock back before the Syrian Apocalypse was let loose. Neither statement depicts their position correctly.

As the Syrian Trappist nuns say, the situation is bad. They lament that their nation was being destroyed, youths exterminated, women violated and children turned into soldiers. The roots of a whole people are being annihilated. However, they believe that a military intervention will only make matters worse.

They poignantly ask: “Will they make us breathe the toxic gases of the depots they hit, tomorrow, so as to punish us for the gases we have already breathed in?”

It is this fear that influences the position of the Church. The Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Patriarch Gregorios, for example, spoke out against armed intervention by the West in Syria, stating that it would fuel hatred, criminality and fundamentalism.

While unreservedly condemning the use of chemical weapons, he noted Eastern and Western countries have been sending weapons, money, military experts, secret service agents and Salafist fundamentalist armed gangs of thugs and criminals. These interventions had a more terrible effect than the use of chemical weapons.

They are to blame for the deaths of 100,000 Syrians, the displacement of millions of others and eliminating the futures of millions of young people.

Archbishop Fouad Twal, the Latin-rite Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem, has also argued that the US should not act as “policemen of democracy”. He added that the consequences of new military action could escalate the bloodshed in Syria, adding to the suffering of innocent civilians.

What has impressed me most in the debate on Syria is the position against military intervention taken by many Church people living in the area

The presence of these Church men and women in the area undoubtedly carries with it an insight of the problems that can elude others living far away. Their voices should be given great importance.

However, even many outside of the Middle East think that military intervention will do more harm than good.

The Jesuit General, Fr Adolfo Nicolás SJ, in a rare interview said he feels obliged to speak out as the situation is very serious.

Nicolás said he cannot understand who gave the US or France the right to act against a country in a way that will certainly increase the suffering of the citizens of that country, “who, by the way, have already suffered beyond measure”.

The United States’ bishops have condemned the chemical weapons attacks, but since they also remain convinced that only dialogue can save lives and bring about peace, they are urging Catholics to contact their representatives in Congress urging them to vote against a resolution authorising the use of military force in Syria.

This situation is difficult as it is always a dilemma to decide on how to tackle evil without creating greater problems than those one hopes to resolve.

The Pope is exhorting people to “raise a cry for peace all over the world” and hopes that yesterday’s day of prayer and fasting, together with other efforts of the international community will help in this direction.

His position is the sensible one as, in the words of Thomas Hobbes, “it can never be that war shall preserve life, and peace destroy it”.

joseph.borg@um.educ.mt