(Luxembourg) Pope Francis warned Thursday in Luxembourg against “the tragic paths of war”, emphasizing the importance of negotiation and dialogue, in an extremely tense international context.
Visibly tired upon his arrival in the morning, the 87-year-old Argentine pontiff then appeared in good shape during this first day of a European visit which will end on Sunday.
In a speech to the authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps of the Grand Duchy, he regretted “the reappearance, even on the European continent, of fractures and enmities which […] lead to open hostilities, with their procession of destruction and death.”
“It seems that the human heart does not always know how to keep memory and that it periodically loses its way to return to the tragic paths of war,” the pope continued, calling for “honest negotiations with a view to resolving disagreements.” “.
Francis, who regularly talks about the “Third World War in pieces”, did not mention Ukraine or Russia and did not directly mention the conflict in the Middle East. On Wednesday, he described the “terrible escalation” in Lebanon as “unacceptable”, urging the international community to do everything possible to put an end to it.
Welcoming the role of Luxembourg in “the construction of a united and united Europe”, he insisted on the place of each country in avoiding “quarrels and wars provoked by exacerbated nationalisms and pernicious ideologies”.
On board the plane, contrary to his habit, he did not greet the journalists one by one. “I don’t feel [capable] “, he explained, his features marked. The Argentine Jesuit suffered from the flu at the start of the week and has maintained an intense pace since the end of August.
This trip also comes less than two weeks after the longest trip of his pontificate, a journey of 33,000 kilometers over 12 days in four countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania.
“Unexpected”
In the afternoon, Jorge Bergoglio met a few hundred Catholic faithful at Notre-Dame Cathedral, before whom he pleaded in favor of welcoming foreigners and an open and joyful Church, a leitmotif of his pontificate .
In the rain, hundreds of others greeted him in the streets of the Luxembourg capital as he took a popemobile ride under tight security.
Georges Carlos Fernandez, a 68-year-old resident of the south of the country, who had already seen Pope John Paul II during a two-day trip in 1985, is delighted to be present for this day. But he is sorry for the brevity of the visit: “It’s too short and he’s hardly going to do anything,” he says, his arms resting on the barriers that line the few hundred meters traveled by the popemobile in the city center.
Nearly 40 years ago, John Paul II celebrated what remains the largest mass in the history of Luxembourg, with the presence of 60,000 faithful.
Since then, the population of the Grand Duchy has almost doubled, in particular thanks to the attractiveness of its financial center. Landlocked between Belgium, Germany and France, Luxembourg has 654,000 inhabitants, some 41% of whom are Catholic, according to the Vatican.
“Pope Francis does not come at all from the same society as John Paul II,” underlines political scientist Philippe Poirier to AFP. “In 1985, 79% of Luxembourgers declared themselves believers in a religion, including 90% Christians,” he recalls. However, “since 2023, the Luxembourg population has become predominantly non-believing”.
Since his election in 2013, Francis has taken care to avoid “large European countries” of Catholic heritage, preferring the usually neglected countries of Asia, Africa or, more generally, the Southern Hemisphere, which he names the “peripheries” of the Church.
The Pope and his delegation arrived at the end of the day in Brussels for a three-day visit which will end with a mass on Sunday morning at the King Baudouin stadium.