Jul 22, 2007 / 07:33 am
Pope Benedict XVI has made an impassioned plea to end the “pointless slaughters” of wars and not to forget the mistakes of the past that have led to such conflicts.
Addressing a large crowd in the central piazza of Lorenzago di Cadore where he is spending his summer vacation, the Pope stressed that God’s plan was never for violence but for mankind to live in peace with Him and one another.
“In these days of rest that, thanks be to God, I am spending here in Cadore, I hear ever more intensely the painful impact of the news I receive of bloody clashes and violent episodes happening in so many parts of the world”, the Pope said.
“This prompts me to reflect again on the drama of human freedom in the world. The beauty of nature reminds us that we have been placed by God to ‘cultivate and protect’ this ‘garden’ that is the earth”, he continued. “If men could live in peace with God and with each other the world would really resemble a ‘paradise’”.
“Unfortunately,” he went on, “sin has ruined this divine plan, generating divisions and allowing death into the world.” He added that giving into evil results in war. “The consequence is that this marvellous ‘garden’ that is the world, becomes a space is opened for ‘hell’”. “War, with its grief and destruction, is always justly considered a calamity in contrast with the plan of God who created everything to give life and who wants to make mankind one family”.