Pope distressed by increasing violence in Ukraine
Pope Francis is very saddened to learn of the attacks on medical centers in Kyiv, and hopes and prays for concrete solutions to end this war.
According to a statement released on Tuesday by the Holy See’s press office, Pope Francis expressed deep concern over the rising violence.
Pope Francis has been tirelessly calling for peace and a negotiated solution to the war in Ukraine, as well as sending Vatican envoys with humanitarian aid and messages of closeness and concern.
The statement on Tuesday comes in the wake of Russian strikes in cities across Ukraine, on Monday that killed scores of people and hit a children’s hospital in Kyiv.
According to the apostolic nuncio in Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas who spoke to Vatican Radio shortly after the strike, the dialysis ward of the pediatric hospital was hit. He expressed shock at the strike on the area where there are no military targets, just the nunciature, the hospital and some homes and shops.
What’s most shocking, he said, in this case, those who were struck were not only children, “but children who need oncological care or liver transplants or other organ transplants”
When missiles target “the smallest of the smallest, the weakest of the weak,” he added, each one of us asks why. “Why does someone continue to provide explanations for the war as if it could be justified for some reason? I do not know how these consciences can continue to do so.”
www.vaticannews.va
