Pope Francis Attends Vatican Screening Of Evgeny Afineevsky’s Ukraine Documentary ‘Freedom On Fire,’ Calls For Peace: “War Is Destruction”
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Pope Francis is issuing a renewed plea for peace in Ukraine after attending an extraordinary screening at the Vatican of Evgeny Afineevsky’s documentary Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom.
The screening at the New Synod Hall within the walls of the Vatican took place on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor, a war that has killed or wounded an estimated 180,000 Russian troops and 100,000 Ukrainian forces.
Upwards of 30,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed. The pope sat next to several Ukrainian women who appear in the film and when the lights came up he led the audience of about 250 people in prayer.
Speaking primarily in Italian, the pontiff asked the Lord to heal humanity from the river of hatred that feeds war: “When God made man, he said to take the earth, to make it grow, make it beautiful.
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