“What great poverty is produced by the senselessness of war!” Pope Francis remarks in his message for the annual World Day of the Poor.

The World Day of the Poor will be observed on November 13. The Pope’s message, entitled “For your sakes Christ became poor,” was released by the Vatican on June 14.

Pope Francis opens the message by saying that just as devastating economic consequences of the Covid pandemic are easing, “a new catastrophe has appeared on the horizon,” referring to the war in Ukraine. He writes at length on the widespread and destructive effects of warfare, especially on the poor.

In his discussion of the war in Ukraine, the Pope offers some of his strongest criticism to date of Russian policy, saying that the conflict is particularly dangerous “due to the direct intervention of a ‘superpower’ aimed at imposing its own will in violation of the principle of the self-determination of peoples.”