The Pope: betrayed desires for peace with false propaganda for rearmament

"How can one believe, after centuries of history, that actions of war bring peace and do not backfire on those who conducted them? How can one think of laying the foundations for tomorrow without cohesion, without an overall vision animated by the common good? How can one continue to betray peoples' desires for peace with the false propaganda of rearmament, in the vain illusion that supremacy solves problems rather than fuelling hatred and revenge? People are less and less unaware of the amount of money that goes into the pockets of the merchants of death and with which one could build hospitals and schools; and instead destroy those already built!" Thus the Pope at the Meeting of the Works for Aid to the Oriental Churches (Roaco).

"It is truly sad to witness today in so many contexts the imposition of the law of the strongest, on the basis of which one legitimises one's own interests," he added. "It is desolating to see that the force of international law and humanitarian law no longer seems to oblige, replaced by the supposed right to oblige others by force. This is unworthy of man, it is shameful for humanity and for the leaders of nations'.

"Let us set an example so that we can move away from the logic of division and retaliation. I would like to thank and ideally embrace all Eastern Christians who respond to evil with good: thank you, brothers and sisters, for the witness you give especially when you remain in your lands as disciples and witnesses of Christ," said Leo XIV. The Pontiff, speaking of the "many miseries caused by war and terrorism", recalled the "recent terrible attack in the Church of Saint Elias in Damascus. In the night of conflicts, you are witnesses of the light of the East", he added with regard to the Eastern Churches, adding: "I would like this light of wisdom and salvation to be better known in the Catholic Church, in which there is still much ignorance in this regard and where, in some places, the faith risks becoming asphyxiated also because the happy wish expressed many times by Saint John Paul II, who 40 years ago said: "The Church must learn to breathe again with her two lungs, the Eastern and the Western", has not been realised". He therefore called for 'a coming together and a sharing of pastoral action, because Eastern Catholics today are no longer distant cousins celebrating unknown rites, but brothers and sisters who, because of forced migrations, live next door to us. Their sense of the sacred, their crystal-clear faith, made granitic by trials, and their spirituality that smells of the divine mystery can benefit the thirst for God latent but present in the West", Pope Prevost concluded.