This year’s Easter was an “Easter of war” according to Pope Francis who dedicated most of his address to crowds of Christians on the Central balcony of St. Peter’s square pleading for peace in Ukraine.
“May there peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of this cruel and senseless was into which it was dragged,” the 87-year-old pontiff said.
“Our eyes, too, are incredulous on this Easter of war. We have seen all too much blood, all too much violence. Our hearts, too, have been filled with fear and anguish, as so many of our brothers and sisters have had to lock themselves away in order to be safe from bombing.”
“I hold in my heart all the many Ukrainian victims, the millions of refugees and internally displaced families, the elderly left to themselves, the lives broken, and the cities razed to the ground,” the pope added.
