Pope Francis: Russia’s Armed Aggression Is ‘an Outrage Against God’

ROME — Pope Francis contrasted Christ’ peace Wednesday with Russia’s war on Ukraine, calling the latter “a blasphemous betrayal of the Lord of Passover.”

As we have seen “in recent days,” the pontiff told the crowds gathered in the Vatican for his weekly general audience, “worldly power leaves only destruction and death in its wake.”

Without referencing Russia by name, the pope declared that the “armed aggression of these days, like every war, represents an outrage against God, a blasphemous betrayal of the Lord of Passover, a preference for the face of the false god of this world over his meek one.”

“War is always a human act, to bring about the idolatry of power,” he asserted.

Communist China and Vladimir Putin’s Russia are attempting to forge a “New World Order” in which the rules of the world are set in Beijing and Moscow instead of Washington, a Lithuanian MP has told Breitbart News. https://t.co/xnAkwudUEF

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 1, 2022

The peace Jesus gives to us at Easter “is not the peace that follows the strategies of the world, which believes it can obtain it through force, by conquest and with various forms of imposition,” Francis said. “This peace, in reality, is only an interval between wars.”

Christ’s peace “is not the fruit of some compromise, but rather is born of self-giving,” he stated. “This meek and courageous peace, though, is difficult to accept.”

“Jesus’ peace does not overpower others; it is not an armed peace, never!” he said. “The weapons of the Gospel are prayer, tenderness, forgiveness and freely given love for one’s neighbor, love for every neighbor.”

God’s way of doing things “is different to that of the world,” he insisted, and Christ offers a peace different from what the world can offer.

The temptation of a false peace, based on power, “leads to hatred and betrayal of God, and much bitterness in the soul,” he said.

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