In two tweets launched from his @Pontifex account, the Pope reiterates the “right to exist in peace and security” for all countries and calls for an “immediate ceasefire” in the Middle East area, hoping that the fleeing Lebanese “can return soon” to their lives.
Alessandro De Carolis – Vatican City
It does not matter whether it is the noon window on Sunday or Wednesday in the atrium of St. Peter’s Square, whether it is a small audience gathered in private or the crowd on an apostolic journey. It is important – even though bombs and missiles, drones and artillery carry their message of death, especially in the Middle East and Eastern Europe – to repeat the daily message of peace with insistence and resilience.
Right to peace and security
And today, October 11 – while the terrible news coming from the fronts clashes with the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize, which evokes the specter of the nuclear Holocaust in Japan, so frequently mentioned lately – Pope Francis’s message comes from the social networks a few hours ago after the meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Two quick and incisive posts, published by the @Pontifex account in a double appeal that aims, first, to reaffirm for “all nations” the “right to exist in peace and security.” “Their territories – the text reads – must not be attacked, their sovereignty must be respected and guaranteed through peace and dialogue.”
“All nations have the right to exist in peace and security: their territories must not be attacked, their sovereignty must be respected and guaranteed through dialogue and peace. War and hatred only bring death and destruction for everyone. #Peace”
Prayer for displaced Lebanese
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, more than thirty months ago, until the horror of October 7, 2023 and the devastation unleashed in the areas of the Holy Land, Francis has not lost or missed the opportunity to pray, ask, insist on the urgency of finding a table for any dispute where we can sit down and seek reconciliation, whether it is a flashpoint or a fire like the last one that broke out in Gaza. The second post we read is: the request for “an immediate ceasefire on all fronts of the war in the Middle East, including Lebanon” and a prayer for the Lebanese “in particular for the forced southern inhabitants – it reads – to leave their towns, so that they can return soon and live in #peace”.
“I call for an immediate ceasefire on all fronts of the war in the Middle East, including Lebanon. #Let us pray together for the Lebanese, especially for the inhabitants of the south forced to abandon their villages, so that they can return as soon as possible and live in #peace.”
After having recalled a thousand times how crazy all conflict is, Francis underlines in the first post the obvious truth that the news mercilessly transmits: that “war and hatred only bring death and destruction for everyone.”