On the eve of his trip to Africa, Leo remembers the martyrs of Abitene

"The international community's attention to the drama of the war" in Ukraine should not be diminished. "Even to the beloved Lebanese people I am closer than ever in these days of pain, fear and invincible hope, the principle of humanity inscribed in the conscience of every person is recognised in international law" and "entails the moral obligation to protect the civilian population from the atrocious effects of war, I appeal to the conflicting parties to cease fire and urgently seek a peaceful solution". These are the appeals launched by Pope Leo at the Regina Caeli from St. Peter's Square.

On the eve of his trip to Africa, Leo recalled the martyrs of Abitene. "The Sunday Eucharist is indispensable for the Christian life," he said at the Regina Caeli from St Peter's Square. "Tomorrow I will leave for the Apostolic Journey to Africa, and it is precisely some martyrs of the African Church of the first centuries, the Martyrs of Abitene, who have left us a beautiful testimony in this regard. Faced with the offer to have their lives saved on condition that they renounced celebrating the Eucharist, they replied that they could not live without celebrating the Lord's Day".

"It is there," the Pope explained, "that our faith is nourished and grows. It is there that our efforts, though limited, come together as the actions of the members of one body in the realisation of one great plan of salvation that embraces the whole human race. It is through" communion "that our hands, too, become witnesses of his presence, of his mercy, of his peace, in the signs of work, of sacrifice, of sickness, of the passing of the years, which are often engraved on them, as in the tenderness of a caress, of a squeeze, of a gesture of charity".