Pope Francis today called for an “immediate” end to the “insane” war in Ukraine, warned of food shortages resulting from the conflict and also called for peace in “other scenarios of this third world war,” such as the Middle East.
“May our gaze be filled with the faces of the Ukrainian brothers and sisters, who live this Christmas in the dark, out in the open or far from their homes, because of the destruction caused by ten months of war,” the Pope called on the give the blessing “Urbi et Orbi” (To Rome and the World) from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.
In his traditional Christmas message, the pontiff encouraged his faithful to make “concrete gestures of solidarity to help those who are suffering” and asked that “the minds of those who have the power to silence the weapons and put an immediate end to this war” be enlightened. foolish”.
“Unfortunately, they prefer to listen to other reasons, dictated by the logic of the world,” he criticized, after ten months since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on February 24, yesterday.
In any case, Francis pointed out his concern to other conflicts and lamented that “our time is experiencing a serious lack of peace also in other regions, in other scenarios of this third world war.”
“Let us think of Syria, still tormented by a conflict that has faded into the background but has not ended; let us also think of the Holy Land, where violence and conflicts have increased in recent months, with deaths and injuries,” said Jorge Bergoglio in front of thousands of faithful who followed him from San Pedro Square.
Recalling the Catholic tradition that places the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, Palestine, the Pope called on his faithful to ask that “there, in the land where he was born, dialogue and the search for reciprocal trust be resumed between Israelis and Palestinians “.
During the message, Francis also asked for “the Christian communities that live throughout the Middle East, so that in each of these countries the beauty of fraternal coexistence between people belonging to different faiths can be experienced.”