Pope Francis weeps at Mary’s Column as he prays for Ukraine

During a public prayer on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Francis was overwhelmed by his feelings about the war in Ukraine. The head of the Catholic Church wept in front of the column of the Immaculate Conception in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna on Thursday as he addressed the war in Ukraine. He actually wanted to thank Mary, the Mother of God, for the peace he had been asking God for for so long, Francis said at first, but then broke off and cried.

The 85-year-old clung to his chair, trembling, and was silent with his head bowed for about half a minute. The faithful in the square, including the mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri next to him, spontaneously applauded.

After that, the Argentine continued to pray with an initially trembling voice: instead of rejoicing at the end of the war, he had to continue to say the prayers of “the children, the old, the fathers and mothers, the young of this tortured country that suffers so.”

After a two-year corona break, the pope was able to pray for spectators again at the Marian Column right next to the world-famous Spanish Steps on the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. Besides the Ukrainians, Francis also prayed for all other people on earth, for young and old, for families. After the prayer, the pope – who still suffers from serious knee problems – had himself pushed past the faithful in a wheelchair and shook many hands. When asked about his emotional outburst by a journalist, he called the war “a defeat for humanity”.

Since the beginning of the Russian attack on February 24, Pope Francis has reminded the suffering people of Ukraine in almost all his public prayers. Also on Thursday, he asked Mary, “that love will triumph over hate, truth over lies, and forgiveness over pain, and peace over war.” (sda/dpa)