Pope Francis wrote to the Ukrainian people. In an unpublished open letter, the sovereign pontiff expresses his closeness to the inhabitants of the country who live the daily life of the war and the Russian bombardments and his encouragement to face a daily life now marked by winter.
With our correspondent in the Vatican, Eric Senanque
It is rare for a pope to address an entire people directly in a letter. In this letter dated November 24nine months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Francis first paints an apocalyptic picture: your cities are hammered by bombs while the rains of missiles cause death, destruction and pain, hunger, thirst and cold “, he writes, referring to the “ rivers of blood and tears » that afflict Ukraine. ” There is not a day when I am not close to you and when I do not carry you in my heart and in my prayers, the pope emphasizes again, your pain is my pain “.
François addresses all Ukrainians: the young people who had to take up arms, the wives who lost their husbands at the front or the children injured by the bombs. In his letter, the pope also says he prays for the authorities: on whom “is the duty to govern the country in tragic times and to take far-sighted decisions for peace” when vital infrastructure is destroyed.
A letter on the eve of the Holodomor commemorations
Lastly, Francis evokes the Holodomor, the great famine caused by Stalin and commemorated this Saturday, November 26. 90 years later, Ukraine finds itself in a sea of woe and pain “. But ” the world has recognized a bold and strong people, a people who suffer and pray, cry and struggle, resist and hope : a noble and martyred people writes the pope.
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