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POPE FRANCIS LAMENTS 'SOLOISTS OF WAR'

Pope Francis in a speech in Budapest on Friday lamented how "we must watch as the choir singing the dream of peace is eclipsed by the soloists of war pressing forward."
 

Meeting Hungarian politicians, diplomats and other dignitaries in the Prime Minister’s Office as part of his apostolic visit to Hungary, the pope said that peace was not achieved “by following strategic interests but by pursuing policies focusing on everyone’s interests, people, the poor and the future.” Citing EU founder Robert Schumann, Francis said: “World peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it.” Referring to Ukraine, Francis said the present era posed many dangers, “but where are the creative efforts safeguarding peace?” International politics is “more about inciting antagonism rather than finding solutions … regressing into a kind of warlike infantilism”, the pope said. Referring to Europe’s role, he said it should “summon the lost, embrace peoples, and consider nobody as an eternal enemy.” Pointing to the founding fathers of the community, he said they had been able to cast their glance “across national borders and over immediate needs … and build unity rather than deepening divisions”.