Pope: “Death and suffering caused by wars are a scandal for the whole human family”
Pope Leo XIV at the Angelus: ‘dismay’ for regions ‘torn apart by war and violence’. ‘So many defenceless victims: what wounds them wounds the whole of humanity’. To children, in a message to Avvenire: “Cherish the courage to ask for forgiveness, the beauty of making peace”. Commentary on the Gospel: “Jesus calls out to us too, ‘Come out’, to walk in the light of love”.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - A colourful sea of umbrellas, raised against a light rain over Rome, welcomed Leo XIV as he appeared at 12 noon in St Peter’s Square for the Angelus. From the window of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Pope shared with the faithful his “dismay” over the Middle East, as well as over the many other regions of the world “torn apart by war and violence”.
The Pope’s call is “not […] to remain silent in the face of the suffering of so many people who are defenceless victims of these conflicts”. He recalled that, always, behind every attack and every cold analysis, there lies the suffering of peoples, of blameless individuals. “What wounds them wounds the whole of humanity,” he said today. “ The death and pain caused by these wars are a scandal for the whole human family, and a cry before God”.
Pope Leo XIV also issued a “forceful” appeal to all those listening. “Persevere in prayer, so that hostilities may cease and paths to peace may finally open up, founded on sincere dialogue and respect for the dignity of every human person,” he said. Prevost then recalled the marathon taking place today in Rome, “with so many athletes from all over the world”. “This is a sign of hope!”, he said. “May sport chart paths of peace, social inclusion and spirituality”.
In a message sent to the Catholic daily Avvenire, published today, Leo XIV returns to the theme of peace, addressing children and young people. “I want to say that restoring the world’s beauty is possible, and that you can help those older than you to see it […] with renewed wonder at its grace, to think of it with confidence, and to build it without prejudice,” he says in the text, dated 19 March 2026.
“There are things you must always cherish from these early years of your lives: trust in those who love you, the universal language of love, the disarming power of a smile, the courage to say sorry, the beauty of making peace,” he adds. Recalling the preciousness of being a child, also emphasised by Jesus, “which is not about going backwards, but holding onto a key to seeing what is essential”.
“Perhaps only by looking into the bewildered eyes of children faced with the barbarity of war can we be converted. To relearn how to look into each other’s eyes and to look at the world with pure eyes,” adds the Pope.
In the message, the Pope also addresses parents and teachers: “Thank you for the care and love you show in educating them. In helping them bring out the beauty they have within.” He emphasised the importance of “lifelong education” in the digital age. “We must not allow children to end up believing that they can find their best friends or the oracle of all knowledge in AI chatbots, thereby dulling their intellect and their capacity for relationships, and numbing their creativity and their thoughts. We must safeguard their childhood and guide their growth so that they may be protagonists of a renewed world,” he says.
Before reciting the Marian prayer of the Angelus, Leo XIV commented on the Gospel of the day (Jn 11:1-45). Today’s passage from John, for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, recounts the resurrection of Lazarus. “In the Lenten journey, this is a sign that speaks of Christ’s victory over death and of the gift of eternal life, which we receive through Baptism,” he explained. “The Liturgy thus invites us to relive, in this light, the events of the Lord’s Passion during the now imminent Holy Week.”
The “enlightened grace” of the risen Christ “illuminates this world, which seems to be in a constant search for novelty and change, even at the cost of sacrificing important things,” he added. “As if fame, material possessions, entertainment and fleeting relationships could fill our hearts or make us immortal.” “It is a symptom of a need for the infinite that each of us carries within, yet the answer to this cannot be entrusted to what is fleeting,” he stated. “Nothing finite can quench our inner thirst, for we are made for God and find no peace until we rest in Him.”
The Gospel account of the resurrection of Lazarus therefore invites us to “listen to this profound need” and “to free our hearts from habits, conditioning and ways of thinking which, like boulders, shut us away in the tombs of selfishness, materialism, violence and superficiality”. “In these places there is no life, but only confusion, dissatisfaction and loneliness,” said the Pope.
He concluded: “Jesus cries out to us too: ‘Come out!’, urging us to emerge […] from these cramped spaces, to walk in the light of love, as new men and women, capable of hoping and loving in the image of his infinite charity, without calculation and without measure”.
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