At the end of the audience on March 16, 2022, Pope Francis called on all the faithful present to recite with him a prayer to ask for an end to the war in Ukraine. The text was written by Archbishop Mimmo Battaglia of Naples.
Here is a provisional translation:
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Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners!
Lord Jesus, born under the bombs of Kiev, have mercy on us!
Lord Jesus, dead in your mother’s arms in a bunker in Kharkiv, have mercy on us!
Lord Jesus, sent to the front at the age of 20, have mercy on us!
Lord Jesus, you who still see hands carrying weapons in the shadow of your cross, have mercy on us!
Forgive us, Lord, if, not content with the nails with which we pierced your hand, we continue to drink the blood of the dead torn apart by weapons.
Forgive us, Lord, if these hands, which you created to protect, have become instruments of death.
Forgive us, Lord, if we continue to kill our brother, if we continue like Cain to dig up stones from our field to kill Abel.
Forgive us, Lord, if we continue to justify cruelty with our weariness, if in our pain we legitimize the cruelty of our actions.
Forgive us for war, Lord.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, we implore you!
Stop the hand of Cain!
Enlighten our conscience, let not our will be done.
Do not abandon us to our own actions!
Stop us, Lord, stop us!
And when you have stopped the hand of Cain, take care of him too.
He is our brother.
O Lord, stop the violence!
Stop us, Lord!
"In this time of Lent, and in this time of such pain of war, I invite you to look to Christ and draw strength from him for a faithful commitment to Christian life," the Pope concluded after reciting the prayer. Many Ukrainian flags were visible in the Paul VI Hall throughout the audience.
