23 June 2022 | Address of His Holiness

ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE PLENARY ASSEMBLY OF THE MEETING OF THE WORKS FOR AID TO THE EASTERN CHURCHES (R.O.A.C.O.)

Hall of the Consistory

[…] Please continue to keep before your eyes the icon of the Good Samaritan. You have done so and I know that you will continue to do so also for the tragedy caused by the conflict in Tigray which has once again wounded Ethiopia and in part also neighbouring Eritrea, and especially for beloved and martyred Ukraine. There we have returned to the drama of Cain and Abel; a life-destroying violence has been unleashed, a Lucifer-like, diabolical violence, to which we believers are called to react with the power of prayer, with the concrete help of charity, with every Christian means so that weapons may give way to negotiations. I would like to thank you for helping to bring the caress of the Church and the Pope to Ukraine and to the countries where refugees have been welcomed. In faith, we know that the heights of human pride and idolatry will be made low, and the valleys of desolation and tears filled, but we would also like to see Isaiah’s prophecy of peace soon fulfilled: that one people will no longer raise its hand against another people, that swords will become plowshares and spears scythes (cf. Is 2:4). Instead, everything seems to be going in the opposite direction: food decreases and the din of weapons increases. It is the strategy of Cain that today marks history.

So let us not stop praying, fasting, helping and working so that the paths of peace might be given more space in the jungle of conflicts. […]