Sunday April 9, 2023 | 10:10 a.m.
Pope Francis showed today during his Easter message his “concern” about the escalation of tension in the Middle East, while encouraging the international community to “make an effort” to end open wars in the world and asked for those who suffer “nefarious effects of drug trafficking, human trafficking and all forms of slavery.”
“I express my deep concern over the attacks in recent days, which threaten the desired climate of trust and mutual respect, necessary to resume dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, so that peace reigns in the Holy City and in the entire region.” , the Pope said when giving the Urbi et Orbi blessing (to Rome and the world) this Sunday from the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica before the more than 100,000 people estimated by the Vatican.
The pontiff’s request comes after the Israeli police stormed a mosque on Wednesday to violently evict the Muslim faithful and began a new spiral of violence in the region, for which this Saturday there were attacks in Tel Aviv and the West Bank that They left at least three dead and six wounded.
In a review of several of the open conflicts in the world, the Pope asked for help for “the beloved Ukrainian people on the road to peace” and that “paschal light be shed on the Russian people.”
“Comfort the wounded and those who have lost their loved ones because of the war, and make sure that the prisoners can return safely to their families,” he later prayed.
The Pope also called on “the entire international community to work to put an end to this war and all the conflicts that bloody the world, beginning with Syria, which is still waiting for peace.”
This Sunday morning, Francisco celebrated the so-called Easter Mass on the day of the Resurrection in San Pedro Square, despite the fact that he continues to recover from bronchitis for which he was hospitalized for three days last week and that this Friday forced him to to cancel his trip to the Via Crucis of the Roman Coliseum.
“Let us also hasten to grow on a path of mutual trust: trust between people, between peoples and nations,” the pontiff encouraged in his message.
“Let us hasten to overcome conflicts and divisions, and open our hearts to those who need it most. Let us hasten to walk the paths of peace and brotherhood. Let us rejoice in the concrete signs of hope that come to us from so many countries, beginning with those that offer assistance and welcome those fleeing from war and poverty,” he added.
In his message, the Pope also recalled the persecuted Christian communities in different countries, including Nicaragua, where the Government prohibited processions for Holy Week and Easter amid a strong confrontation with the Vatican.
“Support, Lord, the Christian communities that today celebrate Easter in particular circumstances, such as in Nicaragua and Eritrea, and remember all those who are prevented from freely and publicly professing their faith,” Francis said.
After recalling the conflict situations that countries such as Lebanon, Tunisia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Eritrea are going through, the Pope also included in his request for well-being “refugees, deportees, political prisoners and migrants, especially those most vulnerable, as well as all those who suffer from hunger, poverty and the harmful effects of drug trafficking, human trafficking and all forms of slavery”.
Francis took advantage of this Sunday’s message to ask for the inspiration of “those responsible for nations, so that no man or woman is discriminated against and their dignity trampled on; so that, in full respect for human rights and democracy, these social wounds, always and only seek the common good of citizens, guarantee security and the necessary conditions for dialogue and peaceful coexistence”.
At the Latin American level, the Pope expressed his wishes on Haiti, “which has been suffering for several years from a serious socio-political and humanitarian crisis” and called for “sustaining” the efforts of political actors and the international community in the search for a definitive solution to the many problems that afflict that troubled population”.
This Saturday, leading the Easter vigil in the Vatican, Francis had lamented that in the world “the laws of the most cunning and the strongest prevail.”
“Sometimes we have simply experienced the fatigue of carrying out daily life, tired of exposing ourselves in the first person in the face of the indifference of a world where it seems that the laws of the most cunning and the strongest always prevail,” the pontiff said during the celebration in St Peter’s basilica.
In his homily, the Pope also listed how, “on other occasions, we have felt impotent and discouraged before the power of evil, before the conflicts that damage relationships, before the logic of calculation and indifference that seems to govern society, before the cancer of corruption, before the spread of injustice, before the icy winds of war”.
