ROME — Pope Francis warned Thursday that Eurocentrism can make people forget about the many armed conflicts taking place outside Ukraine.
Speaking with members of a missionary institute in the Vatican, the pontiff urged them to be “a voice of the voiceless” and to place themselves “beside those who do not have the right to speak or who are not listened to.”
These include “the poorest, oppressed minorities, victims of forgotten wars,” he said, while reiterating the importance of “the forgotten wars.”
“Today we are all worried, and it is right that we should be, about a war here in Europe, at the door of Europe and in Europe,” he said, “but there have been wars for years.”
Among these, he enumerated Syria — at war for more than ten years — Yemen, and Africa.
“These don’t come to mind, they are not in cultured Europe,” the pope lamented. “Forgotten wars, it is shameful to forget them like that.”
In his address, Francis said that, unfortunately, few today talk about the “geographical and existential peripheries, which, in a world where communication has seemingly shortened distances, continue to remain relegated to the margins.”
“The distances have been shortened, it is true, but the ideological barriers have multiplied,” he asserted. “And so, the challenge still becomes to go there to make known the beauty and richness of the differences, but also the many distortions and injustices of societies that are increasingly interconnected and at the same time marked by serious inequalities.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.