Pope launches universal appeal for peace in new book

By Giada Zampano

ROME (AA) - Pope Francis launched a universal appeal for nations and peoples to work together and build a better world where peace reigns, according to an excerpt of his new book published by Italian paper La Stampa on Sunday.

The book, which will be on the bookshelves in Italy on Tuesday, is titled, I Ask You in the Name of God. Ten Prayers for a Future of Hope, and comes ahead of the 10th anniversary of Francis’ pontificate, which falls on March 13, 2023.

In the book, the pontiff asks for an unambiguous condemnation of war and recalls that the church refutes the idea that war can solve problems between nations, saying it is “always a defeat for humanity.”

The pope also stressed how the Ukrainian war has dramatically revealed the horrors that result from conflicts.

Analyzing the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, he said that we are experiencing “a third world war fought piecemeal,” which threatens to expand into a full-scale global conflict.

Pope Francis reiterated that dialogue and hope are the only possible paths to solve conflicts, inviting nations to engage in “dialogue, negotiations, listening, creative diplomacy, and far-sighted politics which can build a system not based on the power of arms or deterrence.”

He also reflected on the role of the UN and its founding charter, noting that the world in which we are currently living is not the same that humanity experienced with the two world wars in the 20th century.

“The world today is not the same anymore, and it’s then necessary to rethink these institutions allowing them to respond to this new existing reality and to be the fruit of the widest possible consensus,” the pope wrote.

Pope Francis also addressed the threat of nuclear destruction, which he said the war in Ukraine risks unleashing.

“Possessing nuclear weapons is immoral,” he reiterated, saying they undermine the paths of dialogue and put at risk humanity’s survival on earth.

Reflecting on the diffusion of weapons, the pope strongly condemned the arms trade as one of the "worst moral scandals of our era."