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War does not give hope – It is a failure of politics and humanity
The World at War: Permanent Crises and Conflicts — What Does It Mean for Us?”,
On the morning of Saturday 24 August 2024, Pope Francis said: ‘War does not give hope’, but “it is a failure of politics and humanity“. He was receiving in the Clementine Hall some 170 participants at the 15th meeting of the International Catholic Legislators Network, being held in Frascati, near Rome, from 22 to 25 August.
He also issued ‘an imperative’ to renounce war ‘as a means of resolving conflicts and establishing justice’ and to ‘pursue the path of peace’ through dialogue, overcoming together ‘the scandalous inequalities and injustices that fuel conflicts. We publish our translation of the Holy Father’s speech below.
Your Eminence, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends, I warmly welcome all of you, members of the International Catholic Legislators Network, on the occasion of your fifteenth annual meeting.
I have heard from Cardinal Christoph Schönborn and Dr. Kristian Alting von Geusau, and I thank them for their courteous words of introduction, which I have read, they wrote them to save time, so that I can have a wider audience.
The theme of this year’s meeting, “The World at War: Permanent Crises and Conflicts — What Does It Mean for Us?”, is more relevant than ever.
The current situation of “World War III being fought piecemeal” — but oy od there, the Third World War — seems permanent and unstoppable.
The current crisis seriously threatens the patient efforts made by the international community, especially through multilateral diplomacy, to promote cooperation in addressing the grave injustices and pressing social, economic and environmental challenges facing the human family. And this is so, I am not exaggerating.
What, then, is the response that is expected, not only from legislators, but from all men and women of good will, especially those inspired by an evangelical vision of the unity of the human family and its vocation to build a world — to cultivate a garden (cf. Gen 2:15; Is 61:11) — characterized by fraternity, justice and peace? This is the question. Allow me to offer some ideas for your reflection.
First: the imperative to renounce war as a means of resolving conflicts and establishing justice.
Let us not forget that “every war leaves the world worse than it found it to be — this is certain, and we have experience of it — War is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful surrender, a defeat in the face of the forces of evil” (Encyclical Letter Evangelii Gaudium, n. Fratelli tutti, 261).
Surrender is not the surrender of one country to another, surrender is war itself.
It is truly a defeat.
In fact, the enormous destructive capacity of today’s armaments has made the traditional criteria for the limits of war obsolete.
In many cases, the distinction between military and civilian objectives is becoming increasingly blurred.
Our consciences cannot fail to be moved by the scenes of death and destruction that we have see every day.
We must listen to the cry of the poor, the widows and the orphans of whom the Bible speaks, see the abyss of evil that lies at the heart of war, and choose peace by every possible means.
Secondly: the need for rigor and patience, the veritable “virtue of the strong”, in order to pursue the path of peace, on every opportune and inopportune occasion, through negotiation, mediation and arbitration. “Dialogue […] must be the soul of the international community”, facilitated by a renewed confidence in the structures of international cooperation.
Despite their proven effectiveness over the years in promoting global efforts for peace and respect for international law, these structures are in constant need of reform and renewal in order to adapt to current and new circumstances.
In this regard, particular attention must be paid to supporting international humanitarian law and providing it with an increasingly solid legal basis.
This, of course, requires working for an ever more just distribution of the earth’s goods, ensuring the internal development of individuals and peoples, and thus overcoming the inevitable inequalities and injustices that fuel protacted conflicts and generate further injustices and acts of violence throughout the world.
In your daily experience as Catholic legislators and political leaders, you also know what it means to deal with conflict, on a smaller, but perhaps no less intense, scale within the communities you represent and serve.
As Christians, we recognize that the roots of the conflict, fragmentation and disintegration of society are ultimately to be found, as the Second Vatican Council emphasized, in a deeper conflict in the human heart (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 10).
Conflicts may sometimes be unavoidable, but they can only be resolved fruitfully in a spirit of dialogue and sensitivity to others and their reasons, and in a common commitment to justice in the pursuit of the common good.
Do not forget this: you do not come out of a conflict alone. No.
You go out with others. No one can get out of conflict alone.
Finally, dear friends, as I offer you my best wishes for your prayerful deliberations.
Allow me to suggest that, perhaps more than anything else, our world, tired of war — it seems that it cannot live without war — needs to renew the spirit of hope that led to the creation, at the end of the Second World War, of structures for cooperation in the service of peace..
I would like to ask you, whose service to our brothers and sisters is inspired and sustained by that peace which the world cannot give. See John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”).
Be witnesses of hope, especially with regard to the new generations.
War is not hope, war does not give hope.
May your commitment to the common good, sustained by faith in the promises of Christ, serve as an example for our young people.
How important it is for them to see models of hope and ideals that counter the messages of pessimism and cynicism — let us not forget the cynical messages, they are terrible! — to which young people are so often exposed!
In short, for those of us who live in a world at war, with constant crises and conflicts, it is a question of finding the wisdom and the strength to look beyond the clouds, to read the signs of the times and, with the hope that comes from faith, to inspire others, especially young people, to work for a better tomorrow.
With these sentiments, I assure you of my prayers for you, for your families, and for all those to whom you serve. I bless you with my heart and I ask you, please, to pray for me. Thank you.
