The Pope has addressed a letter to the people of Ukraine marking nine months since war was unleashed on their land.
In the letter which was published Friday on the Vatican website, Pope Francis wrote:
“On your land, for nine months, the absurd madness of war has been unleashed….In your skies the sinister roar of explosions and the eerie sound of sirens echo unabated”
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“Your cities are pounded by bombs while showers of missiles cause death, destruction and pain, hunger, thirst and cold,” he continued as he assured the Ukrainian people of his closeness and prayers.
“In your streets, many have had to flee, leaving their homes and loved ones. Alongside your great rivers flow rivers of blood and tears every day. I would like to unite my tears with yours and tell you that there is not a day in which I am not close to you and I do not carry you in my heart and in my prayers. Your pain is my pain” he said.
Breitbart reports: The pope goes on to offer words of comfort to young people, who, “in order to courageously defend your homeland, had to take up arms instead of the dreams you had cultivated for the future.”
He mentions wives who have lost their husbands, adults who strive to protect their loved ones, and elderly people, “who instead of spending a peaceful sunset have been thrown into the dark night of war.”
For the second time, Francis ties the sufferings of the Ukrainian people to the ninetieth anniversary of “the terrible genocide of the Holodomor,” the starvation campaign orchestrated by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin that resulted in the death of millions of Ukrainians in the early 1930s.
“Despite the immense tragedy they are suffering, the Ukrainian people have never been discouraged or abandoned to self-pity,” the pope continues. “The world has recognized a bold and strong people, a people who suffer and pray, weep and struggle, resist and hope: a noble and martyred people.”
In closing, the pope invites the Ukrainian people to unite their sufferings to those of the Holy Family.
“I would like to return with you to Bethlehem, to the trial that the Holy Family had to face on that night, which seemed only cold and dark,” he writes. “Instead, the light came: not from men, but from God; not from earth, but from Heaven.”
