Pope Francis warned on Tuesday that the use of nuclear weapons “now openly poses a threat” and appealed to “defuse conflicts with the weapon of dialogue” at an international meeting organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio.
“We are witnessing what was feared and we never wanted to be heard: that the use of nuclear weapons, which have continued to be produced and tested since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, now openly threatens”the Pope said during the prayer meeting for peace, in the Colosseum in Rome, in the presence of several religious leaders.
Likewise, he recalled the “serious international crisis” the world was going through with the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, “when a military confrontation and a nuclear outbreak seemed imminent”.
Citing the appeal made at the time by Pope John XXIII, Francis appealed “to all governments that do not turn a merchant’s ear to the cry of mankind”but yeah “everything in your power to save the peace”.
Francis, who was in a wheelchair, also encouraged those present not to get infected. “by the perverse logic of war” and “fall in the trap of the hatred of the enemy”calling for “settlement of conflicts with the weapon of dialogue”.
According to the Pope, peace has been “smothered” in so many regions of the world “humiliated by too much violence” and “denied even to children and the elderly, who are not spared by the terrible hardships of war”.
Francis lamented that peace is often silenced “not only by the rhetoric of war, but also by indifference” and “for the hatred that grows as the fighting continues”.
The meeting of Prayer for Peace concluded the international meeting on the theme “The call for peace, religions and cultures in dialogue”, organized by the community of Sant’Egidio, which brought together representatives of the different world religions.
The international meeting was attended by, among others, representatives of the Orthodox Methodist and Armenian Apostolic Churches in Western Europe.
Grace Enjei, a refugee from Cameroon who arrived in Italy from Cyprus in mid-December thanks to the Pope, along with 11 others, read one of the prayers.
The president of the community of Sant’Egidio, Marco Impagliazzo, warned that although “the Cold War no longer exists” and “the idea of the clash of civilizations has been contained”, the world today is “on the brink of a much more serious disaster” .
Source: DN
