In the Arena of Peace, in Verona, the pontiff told the weavers of dialogue in the Holy Land: “Ask world leaders to listen to your voice, to involve you in the negotiation processes, so that agreements are born from reality and not of ideologies”. “The sin of political regimes that have ended in dictatorships is not admitting pluralism. Only a society where conflicts are faced and dialogue is maintained has a future.”
Verona () – Israeli Maoz Inon, whose parents were murdered by Hamas on October 7. And the Palestinian Aziz Abu Sarah, who mourns a brother who died in the attacks of the Israeli army in the Gaza war, hugged in front of Pope Francis, to express his desire for peace but also to indicate the only path to achieve it. It was this morning in the Arena of Verona filled with 12,000 people summoned for the “Arena of Peace”, the meeting promoted by the Italian pacifist and social initiative movements in which Pope Francis wanted to be present.
“Invisible grains of dust to block the infernal machine and build justice and peace,” Father Luigi Ciotti, president of the Associazione Libera Contro le Mafie, called them when he presented this crowd to the pontiff. And precisely the powerful gesture of Maoz and Aziz – together with the video appeals sent by some women from the Israeli movement Women Wage Peace and Palestine Women of the Sun – set the tone of this new morning that the pontiff spent with those “popular movements ” which on several occasions he has pointed out as a prophecy of a more just world based on the little ones and the concrete lives of people. Next to him was the Comboni missionary Fr. Alex Zanotelli, who for many years has been the missionary. voice of the last on the outskirts of Kenya and the historical face of Italian pacifism. And in the box – together with numerous Italian entities involved in the issues of participation, care of the environment, work, disarmament, democratic participation. – The Afghan Mahbouba Seraj also contributed her experience, denouncing “the illusion and failure of a peace that wants to be imposed from above” and Vanessa Nakate, a young climate activist from Uganda.
In an intense dialogue during which he often abandoned the prepared text to add his own thoughts spontaneously, Francis once again denounced plagues such as child labor, the arms trade, indifference (“the Nobel Prize that we could give to so many of us is that of Pontius Pilate”). “Peace cannot be invented overnight, it must be cultivated,” he added, pointing the way to a dialogue “that neither anesthetizes nor eliminates conflicts.” “Not being afraid of conflict is the wealth of society,” he added. Dialogue always helps us, but not to make everything the same. The sin of political regimes that have ended in dictatorships is not admitting pluralism. A society without conflict is a dead society, only a society where conflicts are faced and dialogue is maintained is a society that has a future.”
“We are both businessmen – the Israeli Maoz Inon and the Palestinian Aziz Abu Sarah told the Pope – and we believe that peace is the greatest undertaking that we must carry out. There can be no peace without an economy of peace, an economy that does not kill. An economy that does not produce war, but is based on justice. But how can young people be entrepreneurs of peace when the places of training are influenced by technocratic paradigms and the culture of profit at any price?
Pope Francis did not answer this question directly, but invited us to look at “the experience of these two brothers, which is the suffering of the two peoples.” They, he added, had the courage to hug each other. His is not only courage and testimony of peace; Hugging is also a future project. They have both lost family members, their family has been destroyed by this war. What’s the use? Let us be silent and, looking at this embrace, each one of us pray and decide within ourselves to do something to put an end to wars.”
The Pope also recalled the suffering of Ukrainian children, “who have lost their smile.” And that of the elderly, “who have worked all their lives to move their countries forward and now witness a historic defeat, a defeat for all of us.” Let us pray for peace and tell these brothers to bring our desire for peace to their people.”
He also reiterated his conviction that “the future of humanity is not only in the hands of great leaders, great powers and elites”, but “in the hands of the people, in their ability to organize” giving voice to change. “And you, weavers of dialogue in the Holy Land – the Pope continued – ask world leaders to listen to your voice, to involve you in the negotiation processes, so that agreements are born from reality and not from ideologies. Ideologies do not have feet to walk on, they do not have hands to heal wounds, they do not have eyes to see the suffering of others. Peace is made with the feet, hands and eyes of the peoples involved.”
“Each one will reap what he has sown – he added -. Our civilizations are sowing death, destruction, fear. Let us instead sow hope. That is what you are also doing in this Arena of Peace. Don’t give up. Do not be discouraged. Do not become spectators of what you call “inevitable” war. As Bishop Tonino Bello said – he concluded – ‘Stand up, peacemakers.’”
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