During the Palm Sunday Angelus prayer, Pope Francis called for a ceasefire in Ukraine during Easter week.
“Let’s lay down our arms, let’s start an Easter truce. But not to reload our weapons and resume the fight, no, but to reach a truce”, the Pope said.
The ceasefire is important for achieving peace through negotiations. “What kind of victory is that for someone who puts a flag on a pile of rubble?” asked the Pope.
He called believers to trust God. “Nothing is impossible for God, not even the end of a war that has no end in sight, a war that shows us every day the hideous massacres and terrible atrocities committed against defenseless civilians.”
At the end of the Palm Sunday Mass, the Pope, wearing a cloak against the strong wind, boarded the popemobile to circumnavigate the different sectors of St. Peter’s Square and greet the thousands of pilgrims nearby. About 20,000 pilgrims were counted in St. Peter’s Square. The Pope has not been aboard the Popemobile in St Peter’s Square since the beginning of the pandemic.
On Sunday morning, the head of the church celebrated the liturgical celebration of Palm Sunday as the beginning of Holy Week. This was the first major service before numerous believers in St Peter’s Square in Rome after more than two years of the corona pandemic.