ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO THE DELEGATION OF THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLE

[…] Sister Churches, Brother Peoples. Reconciliation among separated Christians,
as a means of contributing to peace between peoples in conflict, is a most timely
consideration these days, as our world is disrupted by a cruel and senseless war of
aggression in which many, many Christians are fighting one another. Before the
scandal of war, in the first place, our concern must not be for talking and
discussing, but for weeping, for helping others and for experiencing conversion
ourselves. We need to weep for the victims and the overwhelming bloodshed, the
deaths of so many innocent people, the trauma inflicted on families, cities and an
entire people. How much suffering has been endured by those who have lost their
loved ones and been forced to abandon their homes and their own country! We
need to help these, our brothers and sisters. We are summoned to exercise that
charity which, as Christians, we are obliged to show towards Jesus, present in the
displaced, the poor and the wounded. But we also need to experience conversion,
and to recognize that armed conquest, expansionism and imperialism have nothing
to do with the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed. Nothing to do with the risen Lord,
who in Gethsemane told his disciples to reject violence, to put the sword back in its
place, since those who live by the sword will die by the sword (Mt 26:52), and who,
cutting short every objection, simply said: “Enough!” (cf. Lk 22:51). […]