Urbi et Orbi Blessing | Pope calls for “hearing the cry of peace”

(Vatican City) Pope Francis on Sunday called on leaders to “hear people’s cry for peace” in this “Easter of war”, again referring to “martyred” Ukraine.

“We have seen too much blood, too much violence […] Let’s stop showing muscles while people are suffering”, launched the sovereign pontiff during his traditional blessing. Urbi and orbiin front of some 50,000 worshipers gathered in St. Peter’s Square in Rome.

“Please don’t get used to war, let’s all pledge to ask for peace […] Let those in charge of the Nations hear the cry of peace from the people,” he urged, prompting applause from the crowd.

The spiritual leader of the 1.3 billion Catholics insisted at length on the need for peace for “martyred Ukraine, so severely tested by the violence and the destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged” with the Russian invasion which began on February 24.

The sovereign pontiff said he was thinking of the “many Ukrainian victims”, citing “the millions of refugees and internally displaced people, families divided, elderly people left alone, lives shattered and cities razed to the ground. “I have in my eyes the look of children who have become orphans,” he added.

However, he welcomed the “encouraging signs” such as “the open doors of many families and communities that welcome migrants and refugees throughout Europe”, seeing in them “a blessing for our societies, sometimes degraded by so much selfishness and individualism”.

After devoting a large part of his message to this conflict, the pope gave his traditional overview of the conflicts in the world, evoking in turn Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Burma or even the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where he is due to go in early July.

Before this blessing, the 85-year-old pope, who appeared diminished by his knee pain in recent days, enjoyed a long walkabout with pilgrims from all over the world aboard his “Popemobile” in the aisles of the Place Saint -Rock.