Pope Francis on Sunday described the war in Ukraine as a "macabre regression of humanity" that makes him "suffer and cry" and called for the establishment of humanitarian corridors to evacuate people trapped in besieged Mariupol.
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Addressing thousands of people in St. Peter's Square for his noon blessing, Francis implicitly criticized Russia.
"My thoughts go immediately to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the city of Mary, barbarously bombarded and destroyed," he said of the mostly Russian-controlled southeastern port city, which is named after Mary, the Mother of God.
As in Roman Catholicism, the month of May is dedicated to Mary, Francis asked for worshippers to pray this month for peace in Ukraine.
Although Francis had originally refrained from mentioning Russia or President Vladimir Putin specifically, he has since begun using such terms as "unjustified aggression" and "invasion" and lamenting atrocities against civilians.
"I suffer and cry thinking of the suffering of the Ukrainian population, in particular the weakest, the elderly, the children," he said, mentioning the "terrible news of children who are being expelled and deported".
Francis also called for safe safe humanitarian corridors for those in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, where troops and civilians are sheltering. He also questioned whether everything possible was being done to bring about an end to the fighting through dialogue.
"While we are watching a macabre regression of humanity, I ask myself, along with many other anguished people if peace is really being searched for, if there really is a willingness to avoid a continuing military and verbal escalation, if everything is being done to silence the weapons," Francis said.
Francis urged his listeners to "not give in to the logic of violence, to the perverse spiral of weapons" but to choose a path of dialogue.
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