Pope Francis regretted today that Europe "does not offer creative ways" to end the war in Ukraine, in a speech to the Portuguese authorities in Lisbon, where he arrived today to participate in World Youth Day (WYD).
In the Cultural Center of Belém before a thousand people after meeting with the country's president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Francisco, who arrived seated in a wheelchair and only got up when he reached the stage to sit in another chair. He delivered a long speech, above all focused on the need to respect the original mission of the European Union.
In front of the authorities, diplomatic corps and members of civil society, the Pope recalled that here, in 2007, the homonymous European Union Reform Treaty was signed, which states that the EU "has the purpose of promoting peace, its values and well-being of their peoples".
And he pointed out that the Treaty of Lisbon goes further "by affirming that in its relations with the rest of the world [...] it will contribute to peace, security, the sustainable development of the planet, solidarity and mutual respect between peoples , free and fair trade, the eradication of poverty and the protection of human rights".
He hoped that WYD, to which close to a million young people will attend, be for Europe "an impulse for universal openness" because, he argued, "the world needs Europe, the true Europe; it needs its role as builder of bridges and of peace in its eastern part, in the Mediterranean, in Africa and in the Middle East".
Pope Francis stressed that Europe's original mission was to "open paths of dialogue and inclusion, developing a peace diplomacy that extinguishes conflicts and alleviates tensions, capable of capturing the slightest signs of détente and reading between the most crooked lines." ".
And then he stressed that "the lack of courageous paths towards peace" is perceived and asked Europe: "Where are you heading, if you do not offer peace processes, creative paths to put an end to the war in Ukraine and to so many conflicts that bloody the world?".
He also lamented the efforts to produce increasingly sophisticated weapons, "which do not represent investments in the future, but the impoverishment of true human capital, that of education, health, the welfare state."
"I dream of a Europe, the heart of the West, that uses its ingenuity to put out sources of war and light lights of hope," Francisco said in this large auditorium before a thousand people.
On several occasions, including during the trip to Hungary this year, Francis criticized the EU for not providing solutions or dialogue to end the war in Ukraine after the Russian invasion.
The Argentine pontiff also lamented in his address a Europe and a West that discard the elderly, build barbed wire walls and where "tragedies at sea and empty cradles" take place.
"Where are they going if, faced with the pain of living, they offer superficial and wrong remedies, such as easy access to death, a convenience solution that seems sweet, but is actually more bitter than the waters of the sea?" said Francisco in a harsh criticism of euthanasia that has just been decriminalized in Portugal.
