Peace in Ukraine is possible, but everyone must commit to “demilitarization of hearts”. Pope Francis said this in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa on Friday. “We should all be pacifists. We want peace and not just a ceasefire that can only be used for rearmament,” the pope said. The Vatican is ready “to do everything to mediate and end the conflict in Ukraine.”
The pope criticized the “greed for power and arms trade” behind the war. “We never learn from history,” the Holy Father lamented. The interview with Turin’s daily newspaper took place ahead of his scheduled visit to his parents’ northern Italian home region of Piemonte on Saturday. In the small town of Portacomaro, the Pope will visit a cousin who is celebrating her 90th birthday.
Public service after a family celebration
The day after the private family celebration on Saturday, there is a public papal service in the cathedral of Asti. Part of Pope Francis’ family emigrated to Argentina about 90 years ago. His father Giuseppe Mario Francesco Bergoglio (1908-1959) came from Portacomaro near Asti. Only one younger sister, Maria Elena Bergoglio (75), lives in Argentina from the pope’s immediate family.
“Two months ago, the Pope announced on the phone that he would come for my 90th birthday. I told him my heart was beating faster and he said don’t die now. We laughed out loud,” the pope’s cousin, Carla Rabezzana, recently told Corriere della Sera newspaper. The woman calls Francis regularly.
Source: Krone
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