Remembering history to defeat the hell of war

By Andrea Tornielli

After Luxembourg, Belgium: still a small country, but a crossroads, “the synthesis of Europe”, starting point for its reconstruction after the monstrous tragedy of the Second World War. The Pope describes Belgium as a bridge, allowing harmony to expand and conflicts to recede. “A bridge that brings civilizations to dialogue. An essential bridge therefore to reject war and build peace.”

Here again, Pope Francis reiterates his call, which has remained unheeded, to Europe so that it remembers its history, made of light and civilization, but also of wars, desires for domination and colonialism. He adds unequivocal words: “Belgium reminds all others that when nations ignore borders or violate treaties using the most diverse and untenable excuses, and when they use weapons to replace real law by the principle of “might is right”, so they open Pandora’s box, triggering violent storms which hit the house, threatening to destroy it.

How can we not see the allusion to what is happening in war-torn Ukraine? The common European home is shaken and risks being destroyed. Because, as the Successor of Peter reminds us, “peace and harmony are never won once and for all”, but rather “a duty and a mission that must be accomplished constantly, with great care and patience “. For when human beings forget the memory of the past and its valuable lessons, they run the dangerous risk of falling back, even after they have evolved, forgetting the suffering and terrible costs paid by previous generations.

There is a forgetful Europe, which only talks about weapons and which seems unaware that it is walking towards the abyss. “We are close,” he added spontaneously, “to a quasi-world war.” We cannot help but recall the sincere and unheeded words of the ailing Pope John Paul II when he urged the “young” leaders of the Western governments of the time not to undertake the disastrous war in Iraq in 2003. He did so as a living witness to the disastrous war in Iraq. the horror of the Second World War. Today, the winds of a fragmented Third World War are blowing in multiple directions: in the heart of Christian Europe, with the conflict in Ukraine, but also in the Middle East, where the massacres of innocent civilians continue, and in many other parts of the world. the world.

A burst of consciousness is necessary. What is needed, the Pope says, is “a timely and ongoing cultural, social and political movement which, at the same time, is both courageous and prudent. A movement that excludes from the future the idea and practice of war as a viable option.” with all its catastrophic consequences. Because history is a life lesson (magistra vitae), but “too often ignored”. And today, this story coming from Belgium, through the voice of the armless bishop of Rome who bears the name of Saint Francis, urges Europe to find its roots. and invest in the future by accepting life, not death, and the arms race, to “overcome the demographic winter and the hell of war”.