In Ukraine, “the only reasonable thing to do is to stop and negotiate,” Pope Francis said once again at the Angelus on July 31, 2022. The day after his return from Canada, he also thanked all those who had made this 37th apostolic journey possible.
From St. Peter’s Square, after the Marian prayer, the Pope spoke about his six-day visit to the America’s neighbor to the north. “I intend to speak about it during the General Audience this coming Wednesday. But now I would like to thank all those who made this penitential pilgrimage possible,” he said, referring to civil authorities, leaders of the Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian bishops.
“During this journey,” the pontiff said, “I did not cease praying for the suffering and battered Ukrainian people, asking God to free them from the scourge of war.” “If one looked at what is happening objectively,” he continued, “considering the harm that war brings every day to those people, and even to the entire world, the only reasonable thing to do would be to stop and negotiate.”
While the fighting continues in the regions of Kherson, Donetsk, Kharkiv and in the south in Mykolaïv, a city massively bombarded by Russian forces, the Pope solemnly appealed, “May wisdom inspire concrete steps toward peace.”
And today we celebrate...