Pope Francis denounces the hypocrisy of countries that talk about peace but play at war

In a solemn commemorative event held this Monday at the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican, Pope Francis presided over the ceremony on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Peace Treaty between Argentina and Chile that ended border tensions between both countries in 1984.

At this event, the Pontiff denounced the hypocrisy exercised in some countries where they “talk about peace” but “play war,” and where “the investments that give the most returns are the weapons factory.”

This self-righteous attitude, he continued, “always leads us to the failure of brotherhood and peace. I hope that the international community can make the force of law prevail through dialogue, because dialogue must be the soul of the international community,” he stressed.

The agreement between Chile and Argentina resolved the crisis caused by a territorial dispute focused especially on the Beagle Channel and the sovereignty of several islands. The Vatican played an essential role in this peace agreement, after Saint John Paul II sent Cardinal Antonio Samoré as a mediator, who achieved the agreement between both nations, avoiding an armed conflict.

Before the authorities and the diplomatic corps of both countries, among whom were the Argentine ambassador to the Holy See, Luis Pablo Beltramino, and the Chilean foreign minister, Alberto van Klaveren, Pope Francis praised the pontifical mediation that avoided the conflict “that “I was about to confront two brother peoples.”

In his speech delivered in Spanish, the Holy Father proposed this agreement as a model to imitate, while renewing his call for peace and dialogue in the face of current conflicts, where “the recourse to force” prevails.

He especially recalled the mediation of Saint John Paul II, who from the first days of his pontificate expressed great concern and demonstrated constant efforts not only to prevent the dispute between Argentina and Chile from “degenerating into an unfortunate armed conflict,” but also for finding “a way to definitively resolve that controversy.”

He specified that, having received the request from the two governments, accompanied by concrete and demanding efforts, he agreed to mediate with the objective of suggesting and proposing “a fair and equitable and, therefore, honorable solution.”

For the Pontiff, this agreement deserves “to be proposed in the current situation of the world, in which so many conflicts persist and worsen, by not having the effective will to absolutely exclude the use of force or the threat to resolve them.”

The Holy Father lamented that “we are experiencing this in a quite tragic way” and pointed out that “we can interpret the oppositions, fatigue and falls as a call to reflection, so that the heart opens to the encounter with God and each “one becomes aware of oneself, one’s neighbor and reality.”

In this sense, he emphasized the need for authorities to be “mendicant sovereigns,” becoming “beggars of what is essential,” of what gives “meaning to our lives.”

He also explained that “it is friendship with God, which is later reflected in all other human relationships, that is the basis of the joy that will never be extinguished.”

Likewise, he hoped that “the spirit of encounter and harmony between nations, in Latin America and throughout the world, desirous of peace, can help multiply in coordinated initiatives and policies, to resolve the numerous social and environmental crises that affect to the populations of all continents”, especially harming the poorest.

He also recalled the words of Benedict XVI on the 25th anniversary of the Treaty, who stated that the agreement “is a luminous example of the strength of the human spirit and the will for peace in the face of the barbarism and unreason of violence and war as means to resolve differences.”

For the Holy Father, this is an example “more current than ever” of how it is necessary to persevere at all times “with a firm will and until the last consequences in trying to resolve controversies with a true desire for dialogue and agreement, through patient negotiations and necessary compromises, and always taking into account the just demands and legitimate interests of all.”

In conclusion, he described what is happening in Ukraine and Palestine as “two failures” of humanity, where the “arrogance of the invader overrides dialogue,” Pope Francis asserted.