Pope Francis on Sunday warned of a global conflict arising from war in Ukraine which, he said, had capacity to wipe out humankind from the face of the Earth.
More than a month has passed since the invasion of Ukraine, since the start of this cruel and senseless war, which, like every war, is a defeat for everyone, for all of us,” he said to thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday blessing.
“We must repudiate war, a place of death where fathers and mothers bury their children, where men kill their brothers without even seeing them, where the powerful decide and the poor die,” he said.
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The war in Ukraine was destroying the country’s future, he said, citing a statistic that half of the country’s children had to flee the country.
“That is the bestiality of war, something that is barbarous and sacrilegious,” he said, urging his listeners not to consider war as inevitable or something to get used to.
“If we emerge from this (war) the same as we were before, we will all be in some way guilty. Faced with the danger of self-destruction, humanity must understand that the time has come to abolish war, to cancel it from the history of man before it cancels man from history,” he said.
Since Russia invaded its neighbour on Feb. 24, Francis has several times spoken of a possible nuclear conflict.
“I beg every politician involved to reflect on this, to make a commitment, and, looking at martyred Ukraine, to understand that every day of war worsens the situation for everyone,” he said.
“Enough! Stop! Let the weapons fall silent. Negotiate seriously for peace,” he said.
(With inputs from agencies)
