Pope Francis, on Palm Sunday, launches an appeal to the Angelus in St. Peter's Square: "Put away your weapons, begin an Easter truce. But not to reload your weapons and resume fighting, no. A truce to get there. to peace, through real negotiations, also willing to make some sacrifices for the good of the people. Indeed, what victory will it be that plant a flag on a heap of rubble? ".
“Nothing is impossible for God, even to put an end to a war whose end is not in sight, a war that every day presents us with brutal massacres and atrocious cruelties committed against unarmed civilians. Let us pray about this ", he said." When violence is used, nothing is known about God, who is Father, and not even about others, who are brothers. We forget why we are in the world and we get to commit absurd cruelties. We see him today in the madness of war, where we return to crucify Christ ".
"Yes - he continued - Christ is once again nailed to the cross in the mothers who mourn the unjust death of their husbands and children. He is crucified in the refugees who flee from the bombs with children in their arms. He is crucified in the elderly left alone to die," in young people deprived of future, in soldiers sent to kill their brothers ".
"Christ is crucified there today", Francis reiterated, recalling the phrase of Jesus on the cross: "Father, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing", regarding "that ignorance in the heart that all of us sinners have".
"With God you can always go back to living - the Pontiff concluded -. Courage, let's walk towards Easter with his forgiveness. Because Christ continually intercedes with the Father for us and, looking at our violent and wounded world, Jesus does not tired of repeating, and we do it now with our hearts, in silence, repeating with Jesus: 'Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing' ".
(Unioneonline / D)
