“Let us continue to pray for peace in Ukraine and in the entire world,” Pope Francis said on July 3. “I appeal to the heads of nations and international organizations to react to the tendency to accentuate conflict and confrontation.”

“The world needs peace,” the Pope continued. “Not a peace based on the balance of weapons, on mutual fear. No, that will not do. This means turning history back 70 years.”

“The Ukrainian crisis should have been, but – if there is the will – can still become a challenge for wise statesmen, capable of building, with dialogue, a better world for the new generations,” the Pope added. “With God’s help, this is always possible! But it is necessary to pass from the strategies of political, economic and military power to a plan for global peace: no to a world divided between conflicting powers; yes to a world united between peoples and civilizations that respect each other.”