During a meeting with Eastern Catholics, many of whom come from war-torn regions, Pope Leo XIV pledged the Vatican’s full commitment to promoting peace and reconciliation. Source: OSV News.
“The peoples of our world desire peace, and to their leaders I appeal with all my heart: Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate!” the Pope said yesterday during an audience in the Paul VI Hall with thousands of Eastern Catholics participating in their Jubilee pilgrimage to Rome.
“War is never inevitable,” the Pope told them. “Weapons can and must be silenced, for they do not resolve problems but only increase them.”
The audience was the culmination of a multi-day Jubilee celebration that included liturgies in the diverse rites of the Eastern Catholic Churches – from the Syro-Malabar and Armenian traditions to the Byzantine and Coptic rites – held in Rome’s major basilicas.
Before the Pope’s arrival, a vibrant atmosphere filled the hall as pilgrims waved flags from Ukraine, India, Iran, Lebanon and other nations; many were dressed in traditional attire – vividly expressing the Eastern churches’ global presence and the deep pride in the faith despite centuries of hardship and persecution.
“Who, better than you, can sing a song of hope even amid the abyss of violence?” Pope Leo asked them, citing the lived experience of communities from the Holy Land to Ukraine, from Syria and Lebanon to Tigray and the Caucasus.
On the stage alongside the Pope were leaders of the Eastern Catholic churches, including: Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church; Cardinal Louis Sako, the Iraq-based patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church; Indian Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, major archbishop of Trivandrum and head of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church; and Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches.
Pope Leo offered strong support for peacebuilding efforts across the globe and reiterated the Vatican’s role as a neutral ground for diplomacy.
“The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve – the dignity of peace,” he said.
The Pope also thanked Eastern Catholics for their perseverance and witness, referring to their churches as “martyr churches,” and affirming their importance to the universal Church.
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Meeting Eastern Catholics, Pope pledges to be peacemaker (By Justin McLellan, OSV News)
