“I would like to take a minute to remember the victims of the war,” Pope Francis said at the conclusion of his March 23 general audience. “The news of displaced persons, of people fleeing, of people killed, people wounded, of so many soldiers fallen on both sides, is news of death.”

“We ask the Lord of life to deliver us from this death of war: with war everything is lost, everything,” he continued. “There is no victory in a war: everything is defeated.”
“May the Lord send His Spirit to make us understand that war is a defeat of humanity, which we need to defeat, all of us; that waging war is a need that destroys us, and to deliver us from this need for self-destruction,” he added. “We pray, too, for leaders to understand that buying weapons and making weapons is not the solution to the problem.”

“The solution is to work together for peace and, as the Bible says, to turn weapons into instruments for peace. Let us pray together to Our Lady: Hail Mary…”