Pope Francis Urges Prayers for Ukrainians ‘Without Light, Without Heat’

ROME — Pope Francis recalled the sufferings of the Ukrainian people Sunday, victims of ongoing Russian military aggression since the invasion of February 2022.

“Let us not forget our Ukrainian brothers and sisters. They suffer a great deal because of the war!” the pontiff told crowds gathered in Saint Peter’s Square for his weekly Angelus address.

“This Christmas at war, without light, without heat, they are suffering a lot! Please, let us not forget them,” he exhorted.

Making reference to an image of the Virgin Mary present in the Vatican crèche, the pope went on to underscore the sufferings of the mothers of fallen soldiers.

“And today, seeing Our Lady who is holding the infant in the Nativity scene, who nurses him, I think of the mothers of the victims of war, of the soldiers who have fallen in this war in Ukraine,” he said. “Ukrainian mothers and Russian mothers, both have lost their children.”

“This is the price of war. Let us pray for the mothers who have lost their soldier sons, both Ukrainian and Russian,” he concluded.

Francis has described Russia’s war on Ukraine as “sacrilegious,” but has also insisted that there are no good guys and bad guys in the war, because all share in the guilt of conflict.

“There is a war going on and I think it is a mistake to think that this is a cowboy movie where there are good guys and bad guys,” the pope told his fellow Jesuits during a trip to Kazakhstan.

“It is also a mistake to think that this is a war between Russia and Ukraine and no more. No, this is a world war,” he declared.

The pope offered similar reflections last May, when he said that to understand the conflict, “we have to get away from the normal pattern of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’: Little Red Riding Hood was good and the wolf was the bad guy.”

“Here there are no metaphysical good guys and bad guys, in the abstract,” he said at the time.

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