Dear brothers and sister,

Before concluding this Celebration, I would like to greet all of you, in particular, pilgrims from various countries, among whom are many young people. I wish all of you a good Holy Week, even those who are connected through the media.

I am near to the dear people of Peru, who are experiencing a difficult moment of social tension. I accompany you with prayer and I encourage all parties to find a peaceful solution as soon as possible for the good of the country, especially of the poorest, respecting the rights of everyone and of the institutions.

In a moment, we will turn to the Blessed Mother with the Angelus Prayer. It was the Angel of the Lord himself who said to Mary in the Annunciation: “with God nothing will be impossible” (Lk 1:37). With God nothing will be impossible. He can even bring an end to a war whose end is not in sight, a war that daily places before our eyes heinous massacres and atrocious cruelty committed against defenceless civilians. Let us pray about this.

We are in the days preceding Easter. We are preparing to celebrate the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ over sin and death — over sin and death — not over someone and against someone else. But today, there is a war. Why do we want to win like this, according to the way of the world? There are only losses this way. Why not allow Him to win? Christ bore his cross to free us from the dominion of evil. He died so that life, love, peace may reign.

Let the weapons be put down! Let the Easter truce begin. But not to reload the  weapons and pick up the fighting again — no! — a truce that will lead to peace, through real negotiation that is also willing to make some sacrifice for the good of the people. Indeed, what victory is there in planting a flag on a pile of rubble?

With God nothing will be impossible. We entrust ourselves to Him through the intercession of the Virgin Mary.