🇻🇦LETTER FROM POPE FRANCIS URGES US TO USE OUR WORDS TO ACHIEVE PEACE AND DISARMAMENT

🖋️The Holy Father has written to the editor-in-chief of an Italian daily newspaper asking the publication and all those in communications to amplify his appeal for peace and disarmament.

📝Writing from Gemelli Hospital, Pope Francis stresses the importance of using words to either build peace or bring disharmony. An excerpt from his letter reflecting on the importance of words states:

💬"They are never just words: they are facts that shape human environments. They can connect or divide, serve the truth or use it for other ends. We must disarm words, to disarm minds and disarm the Earth. There is a great need for reflection, calmness, and an awareness of complexity.

While war only devastates communities and the environment, without offering solutions to conflicts, diplomacy and international organisations are in need of new vitality and credibility. Religions, moreover, can draw from the spirituality of peoples to rekindle the desire for fraternity and justice, the hope for peace.

All this requires commitment, work, silence, and words."

🕊️This picture taken during a Christian Peace Witness Vigil at the site of the UK's nuclear weapons last summer shows how Justice & Peace Scotland and our fellow partners working for peace seek to use our words to disarm through scripture readings, prayer and song.

There are two things we can learn from the Pope's latest message:

1️⃣To use our words in a way that is in harmony with Gospel values. Use them to speak truths, to speak out against injustice, and to speak up for peace. If we are using our words to disagree or question, we should do so in a way that is grounded in mutual respect and recognises the dignity of those with whom we communicate.
2️⃣Disarmament is the key that unlocks true peace for all and we must actively strive for its realisation by advocating for alternative solutions to conflict, such as dialogue and diplomacy, that replace warfare and death with fraternity and justice.