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The Audacity of Peace
Pope Francis. message to the international prayer meeting for peace
organised by the community of Sant’e Egidio
(Berlin, 10-12 September 2023)
“the pain and the horror of war, is the mother of all poverty”
Dear brothers and sisters, as Christian leaders, leaders of the world religions and civil authorities, you gather this year in Berlin, near the Brandenburg Gate, at the invitation of the Community of Sant’Egidio, which faithfully continues the pilgrimage of prayer and dialogue initiated by Saint John Paul II in Assisi in 1986.
The place of your meeting is particularly evocative, because it was here that a historic event took place precisely where you are meeting: the fall of the wall that divided the two Germanies. That wall also divided two worlds, Western and Eastern Europe.
It fell thanks to many factors, including the courage and prayers of many people.
Thus, it opened up new horizons: freedom for peoples and the reunification of families, but also the hope of a new world peace following the Cold War.
Unfortunately over the years, the promise of such a future has been built, not on this common hope, but on special interests and mutual suspicion.
Instead of tearing down walls, more walls have been built.
And sadly, it is often a short step from wall to trench.
Today, war still rages in too many parts of the world.
I am thinking of several areas in Africa and the Middle East, but also of many other regions of the planet, including Europe, which is experiencing a war in Ukraine.
It is a terrible conflict with no end in sight, and which has caused death, injury, pain, exile, and destruction.
Last year I was with you in Rome, in the Colosseum, to pray for peace.
We listened to the cry of a peace that has been sullied and trampled upon.
On that occasion, I said:
“The plea for peace cannot be suppressed: it rises from the hearts of mothers; it is deeply etched on the faces of refugees, displaced families, the wounded and the dying. And this silent plea rises up to heaven.
It has no magic formulas for ending conflicts, but we have the sacred right to implore peace on behalf of all those who suffer, and it deserves to be heard.
We rightfully call on everyone, beginning with government leaders, to take time and listen, seriously and respectfully.
This plea for peace expresses the pain and the horror of war, which is the mother of all poverty”.
We cannot be satisfied this scenario. Something more is needed.
We need the “audacity of peace”, that is at the heart of your meeting.
Realism is not enough, political considerations are not enough, the strategic approaches implemented so far are not enough.
More is needed, because war continues.
What is needed is the audacity of peace – right now, because too many conflicts have gone on for far too long, so much so that some never seem to end.
In a world where everything is moving so fast, only the end of war seems slow.
It takes courage to know how to move in a different direction, despite obstacles and real difficulties.
The audacity of peace is the prophecy required of those who hold the fate of warring countries in their hands, of the international community, of all of us.
It is especially true of men and women of faith, who give voice to the cries of mothers and fathers, to the heartbreak of the fallen, and to the senselessness of destruction, thus denouncing the madness of war.
Indeed, the audacity of peace challenges believers in a special way to transform it into prayer, to invoke from heaven what seems impossible on earth. Persistent prayer is the first kind of audacity.
In the Gospel, Christ emphasizes the “need to pray always and not to lose heart” (Lk 18:1), saying: “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you” (Lk 11:9).
Let us not be afraid to become beggars for peace, joining our sisters and brothers of other religions and all those who do not resign themselves to the inevitability of conflict.
I join you in praying for an end to war, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you do.
It is indeed necessary to press forward in order to overcome the wall of the impossible, built on the seemingly irrefutable reasoning that comes from the memory of so much suffering and so many wounds suffered in the past. It is difficult, but not impossible.
It is not impossible for believers, who live the audacity of a prayer of hope.
Nor is it impossible for politicians, leaders or diplomats.
Let us continue to pray for peace without losing heart, knocking with a humble and persistent spirit at the ever-open door of God’s heart and at the doors of humanity.
Let us ask that ways to peace be opened, especially for beloved and war-torn Ukraine. Let us trust that the Lord always hears the anguished cry of his children. Hear us, Lord!
