Category: Diocese of Scranton News

 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Russia’s war on Ukraine and international reaction to it show how nations still attempt “to govern the world as a chessboard, where the powerful study moves to extend dominance to the detriment of others,” Pope Francis said.

While not specifically mentioning NATO, whose members have announced they are increasing their military spending in response to the war, the pope said, “I was ashamed when I read that, I don’t know, a group of states have made a commitment to spending 2% of their GDP to buy weapons.”

“It’s madness,” Pope Francis said March 24 during a meeting with representatives of the Italian Women’s Center, an association founded after World War II to defend the dignity of women and promote their involvement in political and social life.

The association, he said, shares the Catholic Church’s vision of politics as a form of charity aimed always at the promotion of the common good.

Obviously, he said, “good politics cannot come from the culture of power understood as domination and exploitation, but only from a culture of care, care of the person and his or her dignity and care of our common home.”

The “shameful” war in Ukraine, the pope said, is proving his point.

“It is unbearable to see what has happened and is happening in Ukraine,” he said, “but, unfortunately, this is the fruit of the old logic of power that still dominates so-called geopolitics. The history of the last 70 years proves it: Regional wars have never been lacking; that’s why I have said we are seeing ‘the Third World War in bits and pieces,’ a bit everywhere.”

But, Pope Francis insisted, Russia’s war on Ukraine is different. It has “a larger dimension and threatens the whole world.”

The solution “is not more weapons, more sanctions, more political-military alliances, but a different approach, a different way of governing the now globalized world — not by baring teeth, as is happening now — but a different way of setting up international relations,” one that emphasizes care for one another.

However, he said, a way must be found to ensure that it is not subject to “economic-technocratic-military power.”

Pope Francis said he wanted to share his reflection with the women’s association because “women are the protagonists of this change of course, of this conversion, provided they do conform to the prevailing power system, provided they maintain their identity as women.”

As women acquire more power in politics and in society, he said, “they can change the system” and “convert power from the logic of domination to the logic of service, to the logic of care.”

“I wanted to speak to you about this to remind myself and everyone else, starting with us Christians, that this change of mentality concerns everyone and depends on each one of us,” the pope told them.

“It is the school of Jesus, who taught us how the kingdom of God always develops from the small seed. It is the school of Gandhi, who led a people to freedom on the path of nonviolence,” he said. “It is the school of the men and women saints of every age, who make humanity grow through the witness of a life spent in the service of God and neighbor.”

“But,” he said, “it is also – and I would say, above all – the school of countless women who have nurtured and cherished life; of women who have cared for the fragile, who have healed injuries, who have healed human and social wounds; of women who have dedicated mind and heart to the education of new generations.”

 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – While Pope Francis and bishops around the world will consecrate themselves and all humanity to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, they will include the phrase, “especially Russia and Ukraine.”

In the text of the pope’s prayer sent to chanceries around the globe so that bishops can join the pope March 25, a key passage for many observers reads: “Mother of God and our mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine.”

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and responding to a request particularly from Ukrainian bishops, Pope Francis had announced that he would make the act of consecration during a previously scheduled Lenten penance service in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, will lead the act of consecration at the same time at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal. When Mary appeared to three shepherd children at Fatima in 1917 with a message encouraging prayer and repentance, she also asked for the consecration of Russia to Mary’s immaculate heart.

While popes, especially St. John Paul II in 1984, made acts of consecration, they did not mention “Russia” out loud, which led some people to think that the Fatima request had not been fulfilled, even though the last surviving visionary, Sister Lucia dos Santos, said St. John Paul had done so.

The papal text pleads with Mary to “accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love. Grant that war may end, and peace spread throughout the world.”

By saying “yes” to God’s plan – an event remembered on the March 25 feast of the Annunciation – Mary “opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace,” the prayer says. “We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more.”

“To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world,” the prayer says.

Written with the penance service and the Fatima call to repentance in mind, the pope began the prayer with a statement of trust in Mary’s maternal love for all believers.

“You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the prince of peace,” the prayer says. “Yet we have strayed from that path of peace.”

Humanity, it says, has forgotten the lessons of the 20th century with its “sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars.”

What is more, it says, “we have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young.”

“We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns,” the text says.

“We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons,” it continues, acknowledging also how people have “ravaged the garden of the earth with war.”

“By our sins,” it says, “we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters.”

“Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord,” the pope wrote.

The abiding presence of Mary, the text says, is a reminder that God never abandons people and is always ready to forgive.

“In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion,” the pope wrote. “At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort. Say to us once more: ‘Am I not here, I who am your Mother?'” as Our Lady of Guadalupe said to Juan Diego.

Like at the wedding feast of Cana, the text says, “in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded. We have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace. We opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness. How greatly we need your maternal help!”

“Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace,” the pope wrote. “May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs. May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land. May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside.”

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Here is the Vatican text of the Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, sent by the Vatican to bishops throughout the world. Pope Francis has invited bishops and the rest of the world to join him when he recites the prayer March 25 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Basilica of St. Peter
March 25, 2022

O Mary, Mother of God and our mother, in this time of trial we turn to you. As our mother, you love us and know us: No concern of our hearts is hidden from you. Mother of mercy, how often we have experienced your watchful care and your peaceful presence! You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the prince of peace.

Yet we have strayed from that path of peace. We have forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars. We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young. We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns.

We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons. We stopped being our neighbor’s keepers and stewards of our common home. We have ravaged the garden of the earth with war, and by our sins we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters. We grew indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves. Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord!

Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness, amid our struggles and weaknesses, amid the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war, you remind us that God never abandons us, but continues to look upon us with love, ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life. He has given you to us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the church and for all humanity. By God’s gracious will, you are ever with us; even in the most troubled moments of our history, you are there to guide us with tender love.

We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart. We are your beloved children. In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion. At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort. Say to us once more: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?” You are able to untie the knots of our hearts and of our times. In you we place our trust. We are confident that, especially in moments of trial, you will not be deaf to our supplication and will come to our aid.

That is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you interceded with Jesus and he worked the first of his signs. To preserve the joy of the wedding feast, you said to him: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3). Now, O Mother, repeat those words and that prayer, for in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded. We have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace. We opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness. How greatly we need your maternal help!

Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer.

Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war.

Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation.

Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world.

Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and teach us forgiveness.

Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons.

Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and to love.

Queen of the Human Family, show people the path of fraternity.

Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.

O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir our hardened hearts. May the tears you shed for us make this valley parched by our hatred blossom anew. Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace. May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs. May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land. May your sorrowful heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside.

Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple at your side, said: “Behold your son” (Jn 19:26). In this way, he entrusted each of us to you. To the disciple, and to each of us, he said: “Behold, your Mother” (Jn 19:27). Mother Mary, we now desire to welcome you into our lives and our history.

At this hour, a weary and distraught humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust itself to you and, through you, to consecrate itself to Christ. The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty.

Therefore, Mother of God and our mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine. Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love. Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world. The “fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace. We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more. To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.

Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days. Our Lady of the “fiat,” on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God. May you, our “living fountain of hope,” water the dryness of our hearts. In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion. You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace. Amen.

 

WILKES-BARRE TOWNSHIP – Several Holy Redeemer High School students are being credited for helping to stop their school bus Monday afternoon after its driver suffered a medical emergency.

Wilkes-Barre Township police were called to the 600-block of Blackman Street shortly before 3 p.m. after getting a 911 call from Lainey Conway, a Holy Redeemer student, who on the bus at the time.

The bus, Crestwood Bus #7 with 13 students on board, had just picked-up students at Holy Redeemer and was heading to Mountain Top when the emergency occurred.

When students realized the driver was in distress, students Ryan Martinelli and Kaden Ayre rushed to help – at first trying to apply the brake – and later successfully setting the parking brake of the bus.

During the incident, the bus did start rolling backwards. In response, several of the other students on board tried to signal to the driver behind the bus that there was an emergency. While rolling backwards, the bus did strike the vehicle directly behind it.

Emergency responders arrived on scene and stabilized the bus driver, who was transported to the hospital for treatment.

No students on the bus were injured. Crestwood Superintendent Rob Mehalick responded to the scene and offered assistance to all of the students on the bus. All of the students were released to their families.

“I am so proud of our Holy Redeemer students this afternoon, who used quick-thinking when they realized there was an emergency situation underway on their bus. They calmly worked together to respond to what was taking place. Our thoughts and prayers at this hour continue to be with the bus driver who suffered a medical condition,” Holy Redeemer Principal Doreen Dougherty said.

The current condition of the bus driver is not known at this time.

Wilkes-Barre Township police say no traffic citations will be filed because the crash resulted from a medical emergency.

SCRANTON – The annual Saint Patrick’s Parade Day Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 19, at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton. All are welcome to attend.

The liturgy is traditionally held in conjunction with the city of Scranton’s annual Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. Following the Mass, the Saint Patrick’s Parade is expected to take to the streets of the Electric City beginning at 11:45 a.m.

Monsignor Joseph G. Quinn, pastor of Saint John Neumann Parish and Saint Paul of the Cross Parish, Scranton, will be the principal celebrant for the Mass. The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will welcome the crowd in attendance.

The Mass will be broadcast live on CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton and will be rebroadcast on Tuesday, March 22, at 8 p.m., and Wednesday, March 23, at 10:30 a.m. It will also be available for viewing on the Diocese of Scranton’s YouTube Channel. The Mass broadcast is sponsored by the Society of Irish Women.

This year marks the 60th Anniversary of the Saint Patrick’s Parade in Scranton.

Saturday’s Mass is being offered in memory of John Barrett, Jack Lee, and Judge James M. Munley, on this 60^th Anniversary of the Saint Patrick’s Parade in Scranton.

Jaime Hailstone, President, Saint Patrick’s Parade Association of Lackawanna County, will serve as lector for the Mass and Dana Boylan will serve as cantor.

The Offertory gifts will be presented by Dorothea Crowley, President, Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians of Lackawanna County; Michael F. Cosgrove, President, Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick of Lackawanna County; Chuck Schneider, President, Ancient Order of Hibernians of Lackawanna County; Jack McIntyre, President, Irish Cultural Society; and Lori Wagner, President, Society of Irish Women.

 

SCRANTON – The Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will join Pope Francis and other Bishops throughout the world in consecrating Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The consecration will be a plea to God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary to intercede on behalf of the people of Ukraine to end the current war.

Bishop Bambera will celebrate the 12:10 p.m. Mass on Friday, March 25, 2022, at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton and will offer the Prayer of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The faithful are invited and encouraged to attend in-person. The Mass and Prayer of Consecration will be livestream on the Diocese of Scranton website and social media platforms and will air on CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton.

“I strongly encourage all Catholics in the Diocese of Scranton – and all people of Good Will – to make a special effort to attend the Cathedral Mass, or a Daily Mass next Friday for this special intention or simply take time to pray for peace in Ukraine in concert with the Holy Father,” Bishop Bambera said. “As we continue to see the violence and loss of life taking place in Ukraine – one of the most important things we can continue to do is turn to the Lord in prayer. This will truly be a wonderful moment for the Universal Church to be united with Pope Francis’ consecration.”

Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary during a penitential prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica. On the same day, the Vatican announced that Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, will carry out a similar consecration at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal.

According to the Vatican’s translation of the message of Fatima, when Mary appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima in 1917, she told them, “God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace.”

Warning of “war, famine, and persecutions of the church and of the Holy Father,” Mary told the children, “to prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart.”

The Eastern- and Latin-rite Catholic bishops of Ukraine had been asking Pope Francis for the consecration.

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Below is a copy of the letter sent to clergy of the Diocese of Scranton from Bishop Bambera on Friday, March 18, 2022:

 

On Friday, March 25, 2022, the Solemnity of the Annunciation, our Holy Father Pope Francis will be consecrating Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary at noon, Eastern Standard Time (5 pm in Rome). The consecration, presided over by the pope, will take place during a penitential celebration in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

The Holy Father is inviting Bishops throughout the world, together with their priests, to join in this act of consecration, at the same time.

In response to this request, I will be celebrating the 12:10 p.m. Mass on Friday, March 25, at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton and will offer the Prayer of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The faithful are invited and encouraged to attend in-person. The Mass and Prayer of Consecration will be livestream on the Diocese of Scranton website and social media platforms and will air on CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton.

I would also extend the invitation to all priests of the Diocese to consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in their parish churches at either the same time, or during a Mass that might already be scheduled that day.

I strongly encourage all Catholics in the Diocese of Scranton – and all people of Good Will – to make a special effort to attend the Cathedral Mass, or a Daily Mass next Friday for this special intention or simply take time to pray for peace in Ukraine in concert with the Holy Father. As we continue to see the violence and loss of life taking place in Ukraine – one of the most important things we can continue to do is turn to the Lord in prayer. This will truly be a wonderful moment for the Universal Church to be united with Pope Francis’ consecration.

In the coming days, the Holy Father is expected to share the text of the Prayer of Consecration and I will pass that information along when it is received.

Our Lady, Queen of Peace, Pray for Us!

Faithfully yours in Christ,
†Joseph C. Bambera
Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, D.D., J.C.L.
Bishop of Scranton

 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary during a penitential prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica March 25, the Vatican said.

On the same day, the Vatican said, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, will carry out a similar consecration at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal.

According to the Vatican’s translation of the messages of Fatima, when Mary appeared to the three shepherd children in Fatima in 1917, she told them, “God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace.”

Warning of “war, famine, and persecutions of the church and of the Holy Father,” Mary told the children, “to prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart.”

The Eastern- and Latin-rite Catholic bishops of Ukraine had been asking Pope Francis for the consecration.

Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, head of the Eastern-rite Ukrainian Catholic Church, said March 16, “Ukrainian Catholics have been asking for this act since the beginning of Russian aggression in 2014 (in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine) as urgently needed to avoid the worsening of the war and the dangers coming from Russia.”

“With the invasion of Russia on a massive scale,” in late February, he said, “prayers to do this came from all parts of the world from our faithful.”

The country’s Latin-rite bishops published their appeal to Pope Francis March 2, telling him that their priests, religious and laity all asked that he “consecrate our motherland and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”

In a brief March 16 statement following a two-day plenary in Irkutsk, Russia’s Catholic bishops welcomed the pope’s decision with “joy and gratitude,” and called on Catholic parishes and communities across the country to schedule “appropriate prayers” and individuals to combine prayer with fasting and “deeds of love.”

“We call on all Catholics, remembering that ‘reality is always higher than ideas,’ in the words of Pope Francis, to strive for mutual understanding and be heralds of the word of reconciliation,” they said.

Some groups have continued to argue that Mary’s wish at Fatima was never fulfilled or that it was never done properly because the pope consecrated the world and not “Russia.” The Vatican, however, has insisted St. John Paul II did so in 1984 when he led the world’s bishops in the consecration of Russia and the world. The late Sister Lucia dos Santos, the last surviving visionary and the one who received the instructions for the consecration, had said that it was properly performed.

At his Sunday recitations of the Angelus since Russia invaded Ukraine Feb. 24, people have been showing up in St. Peter’s Square with signs asking the pope for the consecration of Russia or of Russia and Ukraine to Mary.

The Fatima message promised: “If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated.”

But, the message continued: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.”

SCRANTON – As the situation facing our suffering brothers and sisters in Ukraine becomes more dire by the hour, parishioners across the Diocese of Scranton lifted their voices and hearts to God to pray for peace this week.

At the request of the Most Reverend Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, churches in all 11 counties of the Diocese of Scranton held special Holy Hours for Peace and other prayer opportunities.

The bishop led a Holy Hour for Peace on Tuesday, March 15, at 5 p.m. at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton.

“No war ever makes sense, no war and this war in which we find ourselves – not a military action but a war – makes no sense. It is borne out of greed, envy and a lack of understanding and appreciation and respect for the lives that God has given to our world,” Bishop Bambera said during his homily.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an estimated 3 million refugees have fled the country. Billions of dollars in damage has been done to infrastructure, which includes maternity hospitals, schools, churches and apartment buildings.

Many in Ukraine say the psychological, social and economic devastation will take decades to heal.

“These past three weeks have destroyed families, they have torn apart towns and villages and have made no distinction between a disregard for an infant child in the womb and elderly, aged people, who can barely walk who are just trying to find some way to safety,” the bishop noted.

Dozens of people attended the Cathedral Holy Hour for Peace. Many more watched as the service was broadcast live on CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton.

For those attending in person, the Holy Hour was especially meaningful.

“When I watch what is happening in Ukraine, it is heartbreaking and I thought the very least I could do is to come out and share my prayers,” Kathy Bolinski of Clarks Summit said. “I think anytime we all get together for a singular purpose – which is prayer – it is extremely powerful and God will certainly be there listening to us and hopefully we can see the impact of it.”

“Coming together at the Cathedral is a great sense of unity that we all share,” Sister Mary Alice Jacquinot, I.H.M., added.

Chester Klobukowski of Duryea and his wife brought more than 200 rosaries to the Holy Hour. They gave them to the bishop in hopes of getting them to the people of Ukraine.

“My wife and I have been making rosaries for about 40 years and we send them all over to prisons and we wanted to send some to Ukraine,” Klobukowski explained. “We hope for an end to the war. This is unreal.”

Bishop Bambera acknowledged receiving the rosaries during his homily – emphasizing it is one of many signs of “good” and “hope” that has come from all the heartbreak and devastation.

“For as sophisticated a people as we are, for as bright and as brilliant as we have become, for as ingenious as we are, for as capable as we have become, our world is still filled with evil, hatred and sin,” the bishop noted. “When we turn away from God, we find ourselves in the midst of where we are today.”

The bishop also encouraged people to continue sharing three things: prayer, information about what is happening in Ukraine, and financial and material assistance.

“Somehow, in God’s wisdom, in God’s time and in God’s way, peace will come and peace will most especially touch the lives of those suffering souls in Ukraine for whom we pray,” Bishop Bambera ended his homily by saying.

Video from the Holy Hour for Peace is available on the Diocese of Scranton YouTube channel and website for anyone that would like to watch the service.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Appealing again for an end to the war in Ukraine, Pope Francis said those who invoke God to promote or justify violence “profane his name.”

“In the name of God, I ask: Stop this massacre,” the pope said March 13 at the end of his Sunday Angelus address.

With thousands of people gathered under the bright sunshine of a Roman spring day to pray the midday Marian prayer, Pope Francis turned their attention to Mariupol, Ukraine, a city named in honor of Mary; it has been besieged by Russian troops for two weeks.

The city, he said, “has become a martyred city of the heart-wrenching war that is destroying Ukraine.”

“Before the barbarity of the killing of children, of innocents and unarmed civilians, there are no strategic reasons that hold up,” the pope said. The only thing to do is “to stop the unacceptable armed aggression before it reduces the cities to cemeteries.”

“With pain in my heart, I unite my voice to that of ordinary people who implore an end to the war,” he said. “In the name of God, listen to the cry of those who are suffering and stop the bombings and attacks.”

Negotiations to end the war must begin seriously, he said, and the humanitarian corridors agreed upon to evacuate civilians and to bring basic necessities to people in besieged towns must be respected and secure.

With the U.N. Refugee Agency reporting that millions of refugees have already fled Ukraine since Feb. 24, Pope Francis thanked all the individuals and agencies in the neighboring countries who have welcomed them, and he encouraged continued generosity.

He also asked Catholic parishes and religious orders around the world “to increase moments of prayers for peace.”

“God is the God only of peace, he is not the God of war,” he said. “Those who support violence profane his name.”

Pope Francis led the people in the square, including several carrying Ukrainian flags, in a moment of silent prayer that God would “convert hearts to a firm desire for peace.”

After the Angelus, the Vatican used the pope’s English-language Twitter account to send, in 10 tweets, his entire appeal in Russian and Ukrainian.