A unanimous, unanimous, heartfelt cry: it is time to
"put an end to the war in Ukraine and start serious peace negotiations"
.
Pope Francis says this in his speech at the
Forum for Dialogue
underway in Bahrain.
But Muslims also repeat it, starting with the highest Sunni authority, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed Al-Tayyeb, who asks to "raise the banner of peace instead of victory, and to sit at the table of dialogue and of the negotiations ".
In the middle of the Bahraini desert, where the Pope renews
his friendship with all religious leaders
and where he brings his embrace to the small Catholic community, comes the echo of the
missiles that swoop down on Ukrainian land.
In the meantime, the French President Emmanuel Macron's proposal that he would like the Pope to be among the mediators for peace has stalled.
"Unfortunately there are no steps forward, but the Holy See is always ready to help in any form possible", said
Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin on the sidelines of the trip to Bahrain.
But the Holy See does not give up and continues to hope: it speaks of "signals" from Moscow that it has at least reopened the wheat question.
Parolin also reports on the private meeting he had with Russian Foreign Minister Sergej Lavrov a month ago on the occasion of the UN assembly: "He reiterated the Russian version, I told him of the Holy Father's concern, the Pope is very worried ".
The Secretary of State, on the other hand, distances himself from the demonstration for peace to be held tomorrow in Rome: "All the initiatives for peace are good, the important thing is that we do them together and the important thing is that they are not exploited for other purposes. ".
"The fact that it is done without party flags is a guarantee that it is not exploited", declares the president of the Community of Sant'Egidio, Marco Impagliazzo, who brought the voice of the Community to the event for the ongoing dialogue in Awali.
The Pope in Bahrain launched a strong appeal to the leaders of other faiths: "Those who are religious", he stressed, "strongly say 'no' to the blasphemy of war and the use of violence".
It is therefore not enough to distance ourselves from intolerance and extremism, "we must act in the opposite direction", from the condemnation of terrorism to the opposition "to the arms race, to the affairs of war, to the death market".
Francis then underlined that "a few powerful" want war while the people everywhere are experiencing the same difficulties.
It is "a dramatically childlike scenario: in the garden of humanity, instead of treating the whole, we play with fire, with missiles and bombs, with weapons that cause tears and death,
covering the common home with ashes and hatred ". An indirect message to Vladimir Putin but also to Volodymyr Zelenski. The Pope asked him to" be open to serious proposals for peace because otherwise it will never come out.
And this invitation remains ", Parolin said.