“In these days we have been shocked by something tragic: war. Several times we have prayed that this road would not be taken,” the Pope began. For this reason, with his gaze turned upward, Francis reiterated, “Let us not stop praying, indeed, let us beg God more intensely”; and he renewed the invitation to live Ash Wednesday as “a day to be close to the suffering of the Ukrainian people, to be aware that we are all brothers and sisters, and to implore God for an end to the war.”

In reading today's reality of war, the Holy Father's analysis leaves no room for interpretation: “those who wage war forget humanity: they do not start from the people; they do not look at the concrete life of the people, but put partisan interests and power in front of everything. They rely on the diabolic and perverse logic of weapons which is the most distant from the will of God, and they distance themselves from the common people who want peace.”

“In every conflict,” the Pontiff emphasized, “ordinary people are the real victims who pay for the follies of war with their own skin.” It is therefore with an evangelical spirit that the Holy Father's thoughts go to the people who suffer most from this situation: “I am thinking of the elderly, of those who are seeking refuge at this time, of mothers fleeing with their children... They are brothers and sisters for whom it is urgent to open humanitarian corridors and who must be welcomed.”

Faced with such a reality, Pope Francis concludes with his heartfelt appeal: “With a heart torn by what is happening in Ukraine - and let us not forget the wars in other parts of the world, such as in Yemen, Syria, Ethiopia... -, I repeat: may weapons be silenced! God is with the peacemakers, not with those who use violence! Because those who love peace, as the Italian Constitution states, ‘repudiate war as an instrument of offence to the freedom of other peoples and as a means of settling international disputes.’”

Yesterday's appeal is certainly not the only gesture that bears witness to the Pope's convinced and personal commitment and efforts to ending the conflict in Ukraine. In addition to the numerous previous appeals already launched in recent weeks, and even leaving aside the great, as much as silent work the Holy See ordinarily carries out through the more traditional diplomatic channels, one must also highlight the surprising and unexpected personal visit that Francis himself made to the Russian embassy at the Holy See just a few hours after the outbreak of the war: it is a unique fact that a Pope pays a first-person visit to an embassy, because the norm has ambassadors summoned to the Vatican. The Pope's initiative thus emphasizes his first-person commitment to resolving the conflict.

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