ROME — Ukraine hung heavily on Sunday as Pope Francis delivered the annual Urbi et Orbi To the City and the World message in St. Peter's Square, in which he called for peace on what he described this year as an Easter of War. Francis, who pleaded for an Easter truce in Ukraine a week ago, spoke to tens of thousands of faithful. It was a far cry from the few hundred who attended the celebration last year, which was restricted because of the Pandemic.
Francis said we have seen too much blood, too much violence. Our hearts have been filled with fear and anguish, as so many of our brothers and sisters have had to lock themselves away in order to be safe from bombing. Instead of learning from the heavy toll taken by the epidemic and emerging with strengthened solidarity, rivalry had prevailed, he said.
He also called on world leaders to keep in mind a troubling question that scientists posed nearly 70 years ago when they raised the specter of nuclear annihilation.