The message was eagerly awaited. In front of 50,000 pilgrims gathered in Saint Peter’s Square in Rome, Pope Leo
“Let those who have weapons in their hands lay them down!” Let those who have the power to start wars choose peace! Not a peace imposed by force, but by dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to meet them! “, he declared, deploring the temptation “indifference” in the face of wars, violence and “economic and social consequences that they generate and that everyone feels. » The day when Catholics celebrate the resurrection of Christ and “the victory of life over death”, he recalled that “the force by which Christ is resurrected is completely non-violent”and that this is similar to a “offended human heart” who chooses to “pray for him who offended him”. “This forcehe added, does not aim at a particular interest, but at the common good.
An obvious address to the regions engulfed by war, first and foremost the Middle East. Not very verbose in diplomatic outings since the start of the conflict on February 28, the American pope has marked his opposition to the war led by his country. In recent days, he had already invited Donald Trump to “look for a way out” to the conflict. An Augustinian by training, he did not, however, qualify this war “unfair”, against the theory of “just war” of Saint Augustine, nor openly criticized the Trump administration.
“Easter is a victory”
Like the Urbi et Orbi blessing pronounced at Christmas, during which he called for a “disarmed and disarming peace”Leo XIV argued for a Christian vision of war. “Easter is a victory: that of life over death, of light over darkness, of love over hatred”he declared, but she “a very high price”, that of “death on a cross” of Jesus Christ. In Catholic theology, the force by which Christ conquered death, “it is God himself, Love who creates and gives life, Love faithful to the end, Love who forgives and redeems”after having led to Earth “to the end the path of dialogue, not in words but in deeds. »
“Let those who have the power to start wars choose peace!” Not with the desire to dominate others, but to meet them! »
In conflict resolution, the Church advocates dialogue “to the end”, and only accepts war in cases of self-defense, once all possible diplomatic avenues have failed. As in his speech in Monaco last weekend, the Pope urged people to fight against “indifference” “faced with the repercussions of hatred and divisions that conflicts sow”, taking up the expression of the “mobilization of indifference” dear to his predecessor Francis, who said these words on the Italian island of Lampedusa, and where Leo XIV will go on July 4.
” Happy Easter ! Bring to everyone the joy of Jesus risen and present among us”he concluded in ten different languages, including French. As if to remind us that, beyond divisions and differences, Easter is a celebration common to believers around the world, bringing together the 1.4 billion Christians around the resurrection of Christ.
