“Once again some powerful person, sadly locked in the anachronistic pretensions of nationalist interests, provokes and foments conflicts”he said in what appears to be an allusion to Russian President Vladimir Putin, though without naming him.
“We used to think that the invasions of other countries, the brutal fighting in the streets and the atomic threats were dark memories of a distant past. But the icy wind of war, which only brings death, destruction and hatred, has arrogantly swept over the lives of many,” he declared, quoted by the AFP news agency.
Francis also denounced “the seductions of the autocracy” and “the new imperialisms”, which bring the risk of “an extended Cold War that can suffocate the lives of entire peoples and generations.”
Faced with the conflict in Ukraine, which has led more than 4.1 million people, about 10% of the Ukrainian population, to flee the country, the Pope called for “broad and shared responses.”
“Not only some countries can bear the whole problem, while others remain indifferent,” he told Maltese President George Vella and the diplomatic corps.
In addition to the reference to Ukraine, it was a criticism of Malta’s migration policy, often accused of closing its ports to NGOs that help migrants trying to reach Europe on a dangerous journey through the Mediterranean.
Franciscó arrived in Malta today on a visit that had originally been planned for May 2020 but was rescheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Later he will travel by catamaran to Gozo (north), one of the three inhabited islands of Malta, where he will lead a prayer at the national shrine of Ta’Pinu.
The pontiff will hold a mass tomorrow with the expected presence of 10,000 people in Floriana, near the capital Valletta, after a visit to the Grotto of Saint Paul, where the apostle is believed to have taken refuge.
Also on Sunday, he will visit migrants living in the Hal Far peace laboratory, a migration center founded by a Franciscan friar in 1971 in honor of John XXIII.
Source: Ambito
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