Letter from Pope Francis: ‘Disarming words, minds, the Earth’

The pontiff writes from the Gemelli Polyclinic to the editor of the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. In illness, ‘war appears even more absurd,’ he reiterates. Human frailty ‘has the power to make us more lucid about what lasts and what passes’. To information professionals: ‘Feel the full importance of words’. Peace is built with ‘commitment, work, silence, words’.

Rome (AsiaNews) - ‘We must disarm words in order to disarm minds and disarm the Earth. There is a great need for reflection, calmness, a sense of complexity’. Glimpses of respite suddenly stifled by the spread of new darkness of violence.

Negotiations interrupted by the roar of bombs. In a world where war is a constant threat, peace is built with ‘commitment, work, silence, words’. Pope Francis wrote this to Luciano Fontana, director of the Corriere della Sera newspaper, in a letter dated 14 March and released today.

It was sent from the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome where the pontiff has been since 14 February and where he has been confronted with ‘human frailty’: in illness, ‘war appears even more absurd’, he reiterates.

The condition of human vulnerability - which is also experienced and breathed in hospitals and places of care - “has the power to make us more lucid about what lasts and what passes away, what gives life and what kills”, writes the Pope. “Perhaps this is why we so often tend to deny our limitations and to escape from the fragile and the wounded”.

An uncomfortable realisation, capable of ‘calling into question the direction we have chosen, as individuals and as a community’. For this reason human beings tend to avoid fragility. But this isn't possible when we are forced to encounter it in illness or in the senseless brutality of violence, such as that happening right now in Gaza, Myanmar and in ‘troubled Ukraine’.

In his letter, Pope Francis addressed ‘all those who dedicate their work and intelligence to informing’, who operate through those tools that ‘now unite our world in real time’.

The invitation is concise and serious: ‘Feel the full importance of these words’. ‘They are never just words: they are deeds that build human environments. They can connect or divide, serve the truth or make use of it’, explains Pope Francis.

The world is also made with them: they have the ability to build, unite and be at the service of truth. For this reason, it is also necessary to “disarm” words - such as “minds” and “Earth” - following patterns of peace, already highlighted by the pontiff, rather than the apparently prevailing patterns of war.

‘War only devastates communities and the environment, without offering solutions to conflicts, diplomacy and international organisations need new life and credibility’, adds Pope Francis in his letter to the editor of the Corriere della Sera.

Religions also have a role in giving new vitality to the “hope of peace”, even more sought after and significant in the year of the Jubilee. They ‘can draw on the spirituality of every people to reignite the desire for fraternity and justice’, he says.

And the path to peace passes through ‘commitment, work, silence, words’. ‘Let us feel united in this effort, which will never cease to be inspired and accompanied by heavenly grace’, he concludes.