Our destiny is peace, not war says Pope in homage to Our Lady

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 8 - The destiny of humankind is peace, not war said Pope Francis during his customary act of veneration to the statue of Our Lady in Rome's Piazza di Spagna on the Catholic Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Friday.
    "We need you, Mother" because "your person, the very fact that you exist reminds us that evil has neither the first nor the last word; that our destiny is not death but life, not hatred but fraternity, not conflict but harmony, not war but peace," said the pope, wo had been greeted in the iconic square by Cardinal Vicar Angelo De Donatis an Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri.
    Francis then called on Our Lady for "mercy on all peoples oppressed by injustice and poverty, tried by war".
    "Look at the tormented Ukrainian people, the Palestinian people and the Israeli people, plunged back into the spiral of violence," continued Francis.
    "Show us again, O Mother, the way of conversion, because there is no peace without forgiveness and there is no forgiveness without repentance. The world changes if hearts change; and each one must say: starting from mine".
    The pope also prayed for women victims of violence and for mothers who are grieving.
    "Today, Mary, we need to entrust to you as a woman all the women who have suffered violence and those who are still victims, in this city, in Italy and in every part of the world," said Francis.
    "Help us to make a journey of education and purification, recognising and opposing the violence that lurks in our hearts and minds, and asking God to free us from it," he continued.
    "Today, Holy Mother, we bring here, under your gaze, the many mothers who, like you, are grieving. The mothers who mourn their children killed by war and terrorism. The mothers who see them leave on journeys of desperate hope. And also those who try to untie them from the bonds of addiction, and those who watch over them in a long and hard illness," said the pope.
    Earlier Francis paid a visit to the Papal Basilica of St Mary Major, where he prayed before the Byzantine icon 'Salus Populi Romani' representing the Madonna and Child. (ANSA).