Pope Francis sent a hug to all the citizens of the “martyred Ukraine” on the 1,000th day of the war that began with the invasion of Russian military forces, in February 2022.
“Through this letter, which I address to you as my representative in the beloved and martyred Ukraine, I wish to embrace all its citizens, wherever they may be,” wrote the Holy Father in a letter addressed to the Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine. , Bishop Visvaldas Kulbokas.
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In the letter, dated November 19, the Holy Father recalled that “a thousand days have passed since the extensive military aggression that Ukrainians are suffering.”
According to a November 12 statement from the UNHCRthe United Nations refugee agency, since August of this year some 170,000 people have fled their homes in the east of the country, adding to the 4 million people displaced in Ukraine and the 6.7 million more who have sought refuge outside the country .
The Office of the High Commissioner for United Nations Human Rights reported this November 19 that at least 12,162 civilians have died since February 24, 2022, including 659 children; and at least another 26,919 civilians have been injured.
“I know well that no human word is capable of protecting their lives from daily bombings, nor of consoling those who mourn the dead, nor of healing the wounded, nor of repatriating the children, nor of releasing the prisoners, nor of mitigating the harsh effects.” of winter, nor recover justice and peace,” said the Pontiff.
Pope Francis then highlighted that “it is this word PEACE, often forgotten by the world today, that we want to hear resonate in the families, in the houses and in the squares of beloved Ukraine, but at least for now it is not! So!”.
The Holy Father invoked “God, the only source of life, hope and wisdom, to convert hearts and make them capable of having a path of dialogue, reconciliation and harmony.”
The Pope also expressed his closeness to the “national minute of silence,” in which Ukrainians “painfully remember the numerous victims caused by the conflict, children and adults, civilians and military, as well as the prisoners, who often “They are in deplorable conditions.”
“I join them, so that the cry that rises to heaven, where help comes from, may be louder: ‘My help comes to me from the Lord who made heaven and earth’ (Psalm 121).”
Pope Francis also highlighted that it is the Lord who will ask for an account of “all the tears shed” and remarked that “He remains with us also when human efforts seem fruitless and actions insufficient.”
To conclude, he expressed his “confidence that it will be God who will pronounce the last word on this terrible tragedy” and blessed “the entire Ukrainian people, starting with the bishops and priests, with whom your dear brother has remained, together with the children and daughters of this nation throughout these thousand days of suffering.”
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.