Pope Francis concluded the Arena event with the following words:

We have heard from women. And the world needs to look to women in order to find peace. They are the mothers.

The witness of these courageous builders of bridges between Israelis and Palestinians confirms this.

I am always more convinced that “the future of humanity does not lie solely in the hands of great leaders, the great powers and the elites. It is fundamentally in the hands of peoples and in their ability to organize. It is in their hands, which can guide with humility and conviction this process of change” (Address at the Second World Meeting of Popular Movements, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 9 July 2015). Peoples should have self-awareness, and take action as a people, take action with this willingness to make peace.

But you, weavers of dialogue in the Holy Land, please, ask world leaders to listen to your voice, to involve you in negotiation processes, so that accords can arise from reality, not from ideologies. Let us remember that ideologies do not have feet to walk, they do not have hands to heal wounds, they do not have eyes to see the suffering of others. Peace is made with the feet, hands and eyes of the people who are engaged, all together.

Peace will never be the fruit of diffidence, the fruit of walls, of weapons aimed against one another. Saint Paul says: “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal 6:7). Brothers and sisters, our civilizations are sowing death, destruction and fear at this time. Let us sow hope, brothers and sisters! Let us be sowers of hope! Let each one find a way to do it, but always being sowers of hope. It is what you are doing in this Arena of Peace: sowing hope. Do not stop. Do not be discouraged. Do not become spectators of a so-called “unavoidable war”. No, spectators of a so-called unavoidable war, no. As Bishop Tonino Bello used to say, “Stand up, all you sowers of peace!”. All together.

Thank you.

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L'Osservatore Romano, Weekly Edition in English, Fifty-seventh year, number 21, Friday, 24 May 2024, p. 4.