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Pope at the Angelus midday prayer on St. Peter's Square in Rome: The Vatican has offered to mediate
Photo: Gregorio Borgia / dpa
The Pope has again urged an end to the war in Ukraine.
Speaking to around 25,000 worshipers in Rome's St. Peter's Square, Francis said his heart was in pain and he joined those calling for an end to the fighting.
"In God's name, I beg you: stop this massacre!"
The head of the Catholic Church pointed out that the Blessed Mother Mary had been addressed during the Angelus prayer this Sunday.
And just in these days Mariupol in the Ukraine has become a "city of martyrs in this terrible war".
The city on the Black Sea has been heavily bombed by the Russian armed forces for days - especially the shelling of a maternity clinic caused international horror.
No strategic considerations could justify "the barbarism of killing children, innocent and defenseless civilians," the pontiff stressed.
The weapons must be laid down quickly, "before the cities become cemeteries."
Francis thanked the states and many volunteers who are helping the refugees from Ukraine.
Russia was not named by Francis, as it had been since the beginning of the conflict.
The Vatican had recently offered to mediate.
The chairman of the German Bishops' Conference (DBK), Georg Bätzing, said, for example, that Francis was certainly ready to leave for Moscow immediately.
However, it seems extremely unlikely that the church will be successful with its attempts at diplomacy.
The Russian Orthodox Church has been refusing visits from various popes for around three decades, said Bätzing.
The German bishops appealed to the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill I to clearly distance himself from the war.
Kirill I. had recently repeatedly defended President Vladimir Putin's actions and blamed the West for the escalation in Ukraine.
The head of the church described Ukrainian soldiers as “forces of evil”.
fek/dpa
