‘May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine,’ Pope Francis prays on Easter

Pope Francis said on Sunday that the world is celebrating an “Easter of war,” and he urged for peace in Ukraine, which he described as a “cruel and senseless war.”

“We have seen all too much blood, all too much violence. Our hearts, too, have been filled with fear and anguish,” Pope Francis said during his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” Easter blessing, adding that “our eyes, too, are incredulous on this Easter of war.”

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“May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged. In this terrible night of suffering and death, may a new dawn of hope soon appear! Let there be a decision for peace. May there be an end to the flexing of muscles while people are suffering,” After Easter Mass, Pope Francis spoke from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.

According to the Vatican press office, over 100,000 people attended the Pope’s Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square and surrounding areas.

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Among them were a number of Ukrainian officials, including Ivan Fedorov, the elected mayor of the seized Ukrainian city of Melitopol, who was imprisoned by Russian forces last month and charged with terrorism.

“I hold in my heart all the many Ukrainian victims, the millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, the divided families, the elderly left to themselves, the lives broken and the cities razed to the ground. I see the faces of the orphaned children fleeing from the war,” Pope Francis continued.  

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In the midst of the “pain of war,” the Pope also emphasised acts of compassion, such as “the open doors of all those families and communities that are welcoming migrants and refugees throughout Europe.”