CDMX.- Pope Francis urged on Sunday to “silence the arms” in Ukraine, a country hit by a “senseless war”, during his traditional Christmas message in Saint Peter’s Square in Rome, in which he again mentioned the “Third World War”. World”.
“May our gaze be filled with the faces of the Ukrainian brothers and sisters, who live this Christmas in the dark, in the open or far from their homes, because of the destruction caused by ten months of war,” declared the Argentine Pope. before thousands of faithful gathered in the famous Vatican square, some with Ukrainian flags.
“May the Lord prepare us to make concrete gestures of solidarity to help those who are suffering, and enlighten the minds of those who have the power to silence the weapons and put an immediate end to this senseless war,” he said.
“Unfortunately, one prefers to listen to other reasons, dictated by the logic of the world,” the Supreme Pontiff added, noting “with pain that <...> harsh winds of war continue to blow over humanity.”
Before pronouncing the blessing of the “Urbi et Orbi”, the Pope reviewed the conflicts that shake the world, something he usually does, citing ten countries affected by violence or tensions, which he described as “scenes of this Third World War “.
Among them, Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Yemen, Syria, Burma, Lebanon, plagued by a serious economic and social crisis, and Haiti, where more than 1,400 people died violently this year, according to the UN.
For the first time, the Pope cited Iran, hit by a wave of protests unprecedented since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which has resulted in more than 14,000 arrests since mid-September, according to the UN, and 469 protesters killed, according to the NGO Iran Human Rights, based in Oslo.
Pope Francis also called for not using food “as a weapon”, alluding to the conflicts that plague the entire Horn of Africa.
“All war – we know – causes hunger and uses food itself as a weapon, preventing its distribution to peoples who are already suffering. On this day, learning from the Prince of Peace, let us all commit ourselves – first of all, those who have responsibilities policies – so that food is nothing more than an instrument of peace,” he said.
