Pope Francis: “War destroys everyone”

Pope Francis criticized this Saturday the wars, that in Ukraine and those that take place in other parts of the world, because they “destroy everyone” and said that it is urgent that societies recover the “civilization of love”.

Pope Francis made these two reflections in two hearings this Saturday at the Vatican, when he resumed the agenda after he had to cancel his acts on Friday to undergo medical checks, according to official sources.

“Mary's tears are a sign of God's cry for the victims of the war that is destroying not only Ukraine, but all the peoples involved in the war: because war not only destroys the defeated people, but also the victors, and those who look with superficial eyes. War destroys everyone,” Francis said in an audience with the participants in a pastoral pilgrimage from the Italian town of Treviglio (north).

“The tragedies we are experiencing right now, in particular the war in Ukraine, which is so close to us, remind us of the urgency of a civilization of love. In the eyes of our brothers and sisters, victims of the horrors of war, we read the profound and urgent need for a life marked by dignity, peace and love,” he later added in another audience with the participants in a symposium promoted by the Fiat Association.

The pontiff expresses daily his deep concern over the war unleashed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine since 24 February, and for which purpose he has even proposed the mediation of the Holy See.

However, he has refused to travel to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, as he was shuffling as a sign against the war, and he will not meet with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, despite the “very good” relationship with him.

Asked about the reasons, he argued that he cannot “do anything that jeopardizes higher objectives, which are the end of the war, a truce or, at least, a humanitarian corridor.”

In another order, the collection and exhumation of the dead discovered in Bucha after the withdrawal of Russian troops from that Ukrainian city has ended with the discovery of a total of 412 bodies, reported the mayor, Anatoly Fedoruk.

“An important and difficult process ends in Bucha: the collection and exhumation of the bodies of those killed and killed in the territory of the community of Bucha. The figure we have today is 412 ″, he specified in a Facebook message collected by the Unian agency.

He added that this figure will be specified by researchers and experts “who work tirelessly”.

For its part, the Office of the Juvenile Prosecutor of Ukraine reported that 208 children have been killed and 387 have been injured in attacks perpetrated by Russia since the beginning of its invasion of the country, on 24 February, until this Saturday.

The majority of child casualties, including deaths and injuries, occurred in the capital Kiev region with 129, followed by Donetsk with 120, Kharkiv (91), Chernigov (66), Mikolaiv (40), Kherson (41), Zaporiyia (22), Zytomyr (15) and Sumy (16).

The Prosecutor's Office has also reported that 1,500 educational institutions have suffered material damage since the beginning of the invasion, 102 of which have been completely destroyed.

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