Pope Francis has once again touched on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as he urged Putin to ‘hear the cry of peace’ during Easter Sunday mass at the Vatican.
According to the report by AFP, Pope Francis with his traditional urbi et orbi speech was particular about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as he attended his first public mass at the Vatican in two years due to the covid-19.
The Pope did not only address “the city and the world” but took a stand before the international community against the background of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
“That we stop showing the muscles”
During his blessing – broadcast by Vatican News via the video below – Pope Francis thus called on “those who have the responsibility of the Nations” to “hear the cry of peace of the people” on this “Easter of war”.
Sometimes accused of dismissing the belligerents back to back since Friday evening, he placed a Russian and a Ukrainian at the centre of the commemoration of the Stations of the Cross, he also spoke of a “martyred” Ukraine. The sovereign pontiff then depicted a country “so hard tried by the violence and the destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged”. “We have seen too much blood, too much violence (…) Stop showing muscles while people are suffering,” he then urged.
50,000 faithful gathered to hear the pope
The Bishop of Rome again hailed the “many Ukrainian victims”, listing “the millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, the families divided, the elderly left alone, the lives shattered”.
50,000 faithful gathered in Place Saint-Pierre-de-Rome to attend mass and the pontifical speech.