“Please, let’s not get used to war, let’s all commit ourselves to asking for peace with a powerful voice, from the balconies and in the streets,” he said in his traditional message following the Easter Sunday mass he celebrated before 50,000 people, read from the balcony of the central loggia of the façade of Saint Peter’s Basilica before the Urbi et Orbi blessing, in which he referred to the “disbelief” that we are experiencing with this “Easter of war”.
Pope Francis asked this Sunday for peace to come to Ukraine dragged “by a cruel and senseless war” and for those responsible for the nations to “listen to the cry for peace of the people” and also “the question that scientists asked themselves almost sixty years: Are we going to end the human race?
He said this in his traditional message following the Mass on Easter Sunday that he celebrated before 50,000 people, read from the balcony of the central loggia of the façade of Saint Peter’s Basilica before the Urbi et Orbi blessing, and in which He referred to the “incredulity” that we are testing with this “Passover of war”.
Francisco, who did preside over the mass today while yesterday he might not officiate the Vigil due to his knee problems, lamented that following the pandemic “it was time to go out together hand in hand” and, however, “we are showing that we still have in us the spirit of Cain, who looks at Abel not as a brother, but as a rival, and thinks of how to eliminate him.”
And his appeal was: “Let us let the peace of Christ enter our lives, our homes and our countries!”
And as is usual at Easter and Christmas, Francis took advantage of his message to echo the many conflicts that afflict the world.
“Let’s not get used to war”
“Let there be peace in the martyred Ukraine, so harshly tested by the violence and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it has been dragged. May a new dawn of hope break soon on this terrible night of suffering and death. Let peace be chosen. Let them stop making shows of force while people suffer,” said Jorge Bergoglio, leaning out of the balcony where he presented himself to the world as pope on March 13, 2013.
And he begged: “Please, let’s not get used to war, let’s all commit ourselves to asking for peace with a powerful voice, from the balconies and in the streets.”
The pontiff also asked “so that those responsible for nations listen to the people’s cry for peace and” that they listen to that disturbing question that scientists asked themselves almost sixty years ago: Are we going to put an end to the human race or should the mankind to war?”, as read in the Rusell-Einsten manifesto of July 9, 1955 that the two scientists made to ask for disarmament in view of the nuclear danger derived from the Cold War.
The pontiff also mentioned “the numerous Ukrainian victims, the millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, the divided families, the elderly who have been left alone, the shattered lives and the devastated cities.”
“I have before my eyes the look of the children who were orphaned and flee from the war. Looking at them, we cannot help but hear their cry of pain, along with that of many other suffering children around the world: those who die of hunger or lack of medical care, those who are victims of abuse and violence, and those who are that they have been denied the right to be born,” he added.
Francis thanked Europe for welcoming migrants but urged “that the conflict in Europe also makes us more attentive to other situations of tension, suffering and pain that affect too many regions of the world and that we cannot and must not forget”.
Peace in the Middle East and Africa
He returned as every year to ask for peace “in the Middle East, lacerated for years by divisions and conflicts” and so that “Israelis, Palestinians and all the inhabitants of the Holy City, together with pilgrims, can experience the beauty of peace, live in fraternity and have free access to the Holy Places, mutually respecting the rights of each one”.
The pope also called for “peace and reconciliation among the peoples of Lebanon, Syria and Iraq” and for Libya to “find stability following years of tension” and that the truce signed in Yemen in recent days “can restore hope to the population”.
And he prayed for “the gift of reconciliation” to come to Myanmar and for “the dangerous social tensions to be calmed” in Afghanistan.
He called for “the exploitation of which the entire African continent is a victim to end” and “the hemorrhage caused by terrorist attacks, especially in the Sahel area” and cited the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia and the violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , where he plans to travel in early July.
He also referred to “Latin America which, in these difficult times of the pandemic, has seen its social conditions worsen, in some cases, also aggravated by cases of crime, violence, corruption and drug trafficking.”
The pope concluded by recalling that “every war brings with it consequences that affect all of humanity: from mourning and the drama of refugees, to the economic and food crisis of which signs are already being seen”.
And he urged “not to give up in the face of evil and violence.” “Let us allow ourselves to be overcome by the peace of Christ! Peace is possible, peace is necessary, peace is the main responsibility of all! ”, Thus concluded his Easter message.
