Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 28, 2023 / 06:55 am
Speaking to Hungarian civil authorities in Budapest, “a city of bridges,” Pope Francis on Friday challenged the nations of Europe to recapture a spirit of fraternal unity and pursue “creative efforts for peace.”
“In the postwar period, Europe, together with the United Nations, embodied the noble hope that, by working together for a closer bond between nations, further conflicts could be avoided,” the pope said April 28 at the start of his three-day visit to the Hungarian capital.
“In the world in which we presently live, however, that passionate quest of a politics of community and the strengthening of multilateral relations seems a wistful memory from a distant past,” the Holy Father lamented.
“We seem to be witnessing the sorry sunset of that choral dream of peace, as the soloists of war now take over,” he said. “More and more, enthusiasm for building a peaceful and stable community of nations seems to be cooling, as zones of influence are marked out, differences accentuated, nationalism is on the rise, and ever harsher judgments and language are used in confronting others.”