“End all war and every conflict”

Apr 24, 2014

By Gerard O Connell
In a stirring Easter message to the world, Pope Francis prayed to the Risen Jesus “to put an end to all war and every conflict, whether great or small, ancient or recent”, and “to the scourge of hunger”.

He called for an end to the conflicts in Syria, the Central African Republic, and the violence in Nigeria, South Sudan and Iraq, and appealed for a negotiated settlement in Syria, the Ukraine and Venezuela and prayed for the success of the resumed negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

He delivered his message, focused on Jesus’ resurrection and its meaning for people today, from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica on Easter Sunday, April 20. His immediate audience was some 250,000 people gathered in St Peter’s Square from all continents, but he also had a global audience thanks to TV, Radio and social communication, estimated at one to two billion people.

In Jesus, he said, “love has triumphed over hatred, mercy over sinfulness, goodness over evil, truth over falsehood, life over death” and that is why “in every human situation, marked by frailty, sin and death, the Good News is no mere matter of words, but a testimony to unconditional and faithful love: it is about leaving ourselves behind and encountering others, being close to those crushed by life’s troubles, sharing with the needy, standing at the side of the sick, elderly and the outcast…”