Pope Francis: Ukraine humanitarian crisis ‘growing dramatically’ amid ‘river of blood and tears’

Pope Francis condemned the Russia-Ukraine battle in his strongest language but throughout his weekly handle in St. Peter’s Sq. on the Vatican on Sunday.

“Rivers of blood and tears are flowing in Ukraine,” the pope mentioned. “It isn’t merely a army operation, however a conflict which sows demise, destruction and distress. The variety of victims is rising, as are the individuals fleeing, particularly moms and kids.”

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“The necessity for humanitarian help in that troubled nation is rising dramatically by the hour,” Francis continued.  “Struggle is insanity! Cease, please! Have a look at this cruelty!”

Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities final month, Pope Francis made the extraordinary papal gesture of going to the Russian embassy in Rome to specific his concern in regards to the conflict.

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The pope’s homily on Sunday continued his behavior of refraining from publicly calling out Russia, presumably for concern of antagonizing the Russian Orthodox Church, with which he’s making an attempt to construct stronger ties.

The pope’s exhortation echoed that of greater than 280 Russian Orthodox clergy, who signed an open letter urging for an finish to the “fratricidal conflict” in Ukraine, as of Sunday.

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“We mourn the ordeal to which our brothers and sisters in Ukraine have been undeservedly subjected,” the letter learn, in keeping with a translation in The Christian Submit.

Morning fog surrounds the thousand-year-old Monastery of the Caves, often known as Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, one of many holiest websites of Japanese Orthodox Christians, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018.
(AP Photograph/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

The clergy additionally lamented the divisions the continued battle has torn open, writing, “It saddens us to think about the gulf that our kids and grandchildren in Russia and Ukraine should bridge with the intention to start to be buddies once more, to respect and love one another.”

“Cease the conflict,” they urged.

A 2018 survey discovered that about 67.3% of Ukraine’s inhabitants identifies as some sort of Orthodox Christianity, with 28.7% a part of the Kyiv-based Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), 23.4% merely “Orthodox,” and 12.8% UOC-MP.

The Related Press and Fox Information Digital’s Tyler O’Neil contributed to this report.