ROME, Italy — Pope Francis joined an assembly of global religious leaders Tuesday in praying to God for peace, especially in Ukraine.
Our prayer “has become a ‘cry,’ because today peace is gravely violated, wounded, trampled underfoot: and this in Europe, that is, in the continent that in the last century experienced the tragedies of the two world wars — and we are in the third,” the pontiff declared to the group united in Rome’s Colosseum.
Since that time, “wars have never ceased bloodying and impoverishing the earth, but the moment we are living is particularly dramatic,” he said. “For this reason we have raised our prayer to God, who always hears the anguished cry of his children. Listen to us, Lord!”
This prayer “deserves to be heard,” the pope declared. “It deserves that everyone, starting with rulers, bend down to listen with seriousness and respect. The cry for peace expresses the pain and horror of war, the mother of all poverty.”
Pope Francis attends with Christian leaders the last day of the “Cry for peace” (Il grids della pace) international conference for peace organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio in front of Rome’s Colosseum, Tuesday, October 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
The pope reiterated his conviction that peace “is at the heart of religions, in their Scriptures and in their message,” while also decrying the indifference that makes armed conflict possible.
“The cry for peace is often silenced not only by war rhetoric, but also by indifference. It is silenced by the hatred that grows while fighting each other,” he said.
Pope Francis attends with several religious leaders on the last day of the “The Cry for Peace” international conference for peace organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio in front of Rome’s Colisseum, in Rome, Italy on October 25, 2022. (Isabella Bonotto/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“Every war leaves the world worse than it found it. War is a failure of politics and humanity, a shameful surrender, a defeat in the face of the forces of evil,” he insisted.
Francis went on to lament that today, “what was feared and that we would never have wanted to hear is taking place: that is, that the use of atomic weapons, which culpably continued to be produced and tested after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is now openly threatened.”
God grants the gift of peace, he said, but “this gift must be welcomed and cultivated by us men and women, especially by us, believers.”
“Let us not allow ourselves to be infected by the perverse logic of war; let us not fall into the trap of hatred for the enemy,” he said.
“Let us defuse conflicts with the weapon of dialogue,” he declared.
According to the pope, fraternity between religions has made “decisive progress” in recent years, and “sister religions help fraternal peoples to live in peace.”
“More and more we feel like brothers and sisters to each other!” he said, insisting that religions “cannot be used for war. Only peace is holy and no one uses God’s name to bless terror and violence.”
“Let us not resign ourselves to war, let us cultivate seeds of reconciliation,” he concluded, “and today let us raise to heaven the cry for peace.”
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