20 March, 2025

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The Pope: War is absurd, let us disarm the Earth

We publish the letter that Francis wrote to the editor of Corriere della Sera, Luciano Fontana, in response to his message of closeness to the Pope during his time of illness, in which he asks him to reiterate a call for peace and disarmament in the columns of the Milanese newspaper

The Pope: War is absurd, let us disarm the Earth

Dear Editor,

I would like to thank you for the kind words you have chosen to express during this time of illness, when, as I have had the opportunity to say, war appears even more absurd. Human frailty has the power to make us more lucid about what lasts and what passes, about what makes us live and what kills us. Perhaps this is why we so often tend to deny limits and avoid fragile and wounded people: they have the power to question the direction we have chosen, as individuals and as communities.

I would like to encourage you and all those who dedicate their work and intelligence to inform, through the communication tools that today unite our world in real-time: to feel the full importance of words. They are never just words: they are facts that build human environments. They can connect or divide, serve the truth, or make use of it. We must disarm words, disarm minds, and disarm the Earth. There is a great need for reflection, calm, and a sense of complexity.

While war only devastates communities and the environment, offering no solutions to conflicts, diplomacy, and international organizations need new life and credibility. Religions, moreover, can draw on the spirituality of people to rekindle the desire for fraternity and justice, the hope for peace.

All this requires commitment, work, silence, and words. Let us feel united in this effort, which heavenly Grace will never cease to inspire and accompany.

Francis

Rome, Gemelli Polyclinic, March 14, 2025

Exaudi Staff