“We must not resign ourselves to the prevailing logic of conflict and weapons,” the Pope said during Mass in Castel Gandolfo, on one of the most important Marian feast days. “Today, we entrust our prayers for peace to the intercession of the Virgin Mary.”
He recalled the words of Pope Pius XII, written during World War II: “Never again waste human lives!” Reflecting on this, Pope Leo XIV added, “Sadly, even today we often feel powerless in the face of the violence spreading across the world. Yet we must not give up hope: God is greater than the sins of the world.”
Speaking in front of a crowd of around 2,500 gathered for the celebration, the Pope praised the role of women as peacemakers: “The poor and persecuted Christian communities—witnesses of tenderness and forgiveness in places of conflict, peacemakers and bridge builders in a divided world—are the joy of the Church. Many of them are women. Let us be converted by their witness!”
Quoting from the final canto of Paradiso in Dante’s Divine Comedy, the Pope urged the faithful in the Angelus: “Do not stray in the dark forest of evil.” He added: “Mary is a living spring that flows with hope.” He further reflected on the theme of the current Jubilee year: “Pilgrims of hope. The pilgrim needs a destination to guide his journey: a beautiful, attractive destination that guides his steps and revives him, when he is tired; that always revives … hope in his heart. On the path of existence this goal is God: infinite and eternal Love, fullness of life, of peace, of joy, of every good. The human heart is not happy until it finds it.”
