Poverty and rejection are an offence against the human person, disfiguring his or her dignity. They are like ashes that extinguish the fire carried within as persons created in the image of God. Only by restoring dignity do we restore humanity! #ApostolicJourney

The Lord is to be sought and loved in the poor. As Christians, we must take care not to distance them from us. There is something wrong when a believer keeps Christ’s loved ones at a distance. #ApostolicJourney

Hatred and violence are never acceptable, never justifiable, never tolerable, all the more so for Christians. Hate merely breeds further hate and violence further violence. #ApostolicJourney

With pain in my heart, I ask God to forgive the violence of man against man. Father, have mercy on us! Console the victims and those who suffer. Convert the hearts of those who carry out brutal atrocities that bring shame upon all humanity! #ApostolicJourney

I ask all who orchestrate war in the #DemocraticRepublicOfTheCongo to listen to the voice of God who calls you to conversion. Put an end to war. Stop getting rich at the cost of the poor. Stop getting rich from resources and money stained with blood!

We Christians are called to break the cycle of violence, to dismantle the machinations of hatred to be a conscience of peace in our world: witnesses of love, fraternity and forgiveness, missionaries of the love God has for each human being.

There is no Christianity without community,just as there is no peace without fraternity. Let us believe in community and,with God’s help,build a Church free of the worldly spirit and full of the Holy Spirit, ree from the personal hoarding of riches and filled with brotherly love!

Christ wants to anoint us with his forgiveness, to give us peace and the courage to forgive others in turn, the courage to grant others a great amnesty of the heart. May today be a time of grace for you to accept and experience Jesus’ forgiveness!

How can we safeguard and cultivate the peace of Jesus? He himself points to three wellsprings of peace, three sources from which we can draw as we continue to nurture peace. They are forgiveness, community and mission. #ApostolicJourney

Pontifex