The Pope has sent a letter to the Ukrainian people, nine months after the outbreak of the war, in which he regrets «every little one who has lost his life» and calls on the authorities to take «far-sighted decisions for peace».
«How many children killed, wounded or orphaned, torn away from their mothers!(…) But how can we not feel anguish for them and for those, small and large, who have been deported? The pain of Ukrainian mothers is incalculable,» Francis said in the letter published by the Vatican press office.
The duty to govern the country in tragic times and to make far-sighted decisions for peace is of the utmost importance,» he adds.
«I weep with you for every little child who, because of this war, has lost his or her life, like Kira in Odessa, like Lisa in Vinnitsia, and like hundreds of other children: in each one of them the whole of humanity is defeated.»
«Now they are in the bosom of God, they see your anguish and pray for it to end,» Francis assures. At another point in the missive, he refers to the young people, who «to courageously defend» the homeland, have had to put «their hands on weapons instead of the dreams you have cultivated for the future.» The Pope went on to mention the many wives who have lost their husbands, «biting their lips, continue in silence, with dignity and determination» and «making every sacrifice» for their children. The pontiff also spoke of the elderly women who, instead of «enjoying a serene sunset» have been thrown «into the dark night of war».
This Saturday, in the Basilica of St. Sophia in Rome, the commemoration of the Holodomor, the great famine ordered by Stalin that caused millions of deaths in Ukraine between 1932 and 1933, will be attended, on behalf of the Vatican, by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri and the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, Cardinal Michael Czerny.
Also present will be the Rector of the Basilica of St. Sophia in Rome and Director of Migrants of the Apostolic Exarchate of the Ukrainians in Italy, Marco Jaroslav Semehen. The Pope recalled at Wednesday’s general audience the genocide of about seven million Ukrainians, Kazakhs and North Caucasians. After the crime was recognized by the UN in 2003 and by the European Parliament in 2008, the Ukrainian parliament defined it as genocide and decided to commemorate it officially on the fourth Saturday of November, opening also the National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide in 2008.
