By Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service • Posted November 19, 2024

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis prayed for a conversion of hearts and a start to dialogue, reconciliation and peace in a letter marking the 1,000th day since Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“May the Lord comfort our hearts and strengthen the hope that, while gathering every tear shed and holding all accountable, he remains close to us even when human efforts seem fruitless and actions inadequate,” the pope said in a letter sent to Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, apostolic nuncio to Ukraine Nov. 19.

The Vatican newspaper published a copy of the letter on the front page of that day’s edition.

The pope addressed the letter to the nuncio, “as my representative in the beloved and tormented Ukraine” so that the archbishop would convey the pope’s wish “to embrace all its citizens, wherever they may be.”

Aware of the immense suffering of people in Ukraine, he wrote he was also “well aware that no human words can protect their lives from daily bombings, console those mourning their dead, heal the wounded, bring children back home, free prisoners, mitigate the harsh effects of winter or restore justice and peace.”

The word, “peace,” he wrote, is “sadly forgotten by today’s world,” and it is still a word “that we would like to hear resounding in the families, homes and squares of dear Ukraine.”

Pope Francis said his letter was not meant to be “mere words, albeit full of solidarity, but, as I have been doing since the beginning of the invasion of this country, a heartfelt invocation to God, the only source of life, hope and wisdom, that he may convert hearts and enable them to initiate paths of dialogue, reconciliation and harmony.”

He recalled the country’s practice of tolling the bells every morning at 9 o’clock to observe a “national minute of silence” to solemnly remember “the many victims” and the children and adults, “civilians and military personnel, as well as prisoners, who often find themselves in deplorable conditions.”

“I join them so that the cry may be louder that rises to Heaven, from which comes our help,” he wrote.

The pope blessed all Ukrainian people, “beginning with the bishops and priests — along with you, dear brother — who have stood by the sons and daughters of that nation throughout these thousand days of suffering.”