God’s name can never be used to justify ‘absurd’ pursuit of war, pope says

By Catholic News Service

   ROME (CNS) — Believing problems and differences can be resolved with war is absurd, Pope Leo XIV said, chastising those who use God’s name in their dark and deadly pursuits. “God cannot be enlisted by darkness,” he said in his homily during Mass in a parish on the outskirts of Rome March 15. “Rather, he always comes to bring light, hope and peace to humanity, and it is peace that must be sought by those who call upon him.” The pope was making his fifth and final visit to parishes in his Diocese of Rome in the run-up to Palm Sunday, which falls on March 29. So many of “our brothers and sisters around the world are suffering because of violent conflicts, sparked by the absurd notion that problems and differences can be resolved through war.” “Some even go so far as to invoke God’s name in these choices of death,” he said. What is needed is “unceasing dialogue for peace.” “This is the message of this Sunday: no matter how deep the abyss into which a person may fall because of their sins, Christ comes to bring a brighter light, capable of freeing them from the blindness of evil, so that they may begin a new life,” he said in his homily.