People decide whether to bring peace to the world or not, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Peace begins when each person decides to accept it as a gift and live at peace with everyone throughout the day, Pope Francis said.

Peace “begins at my front door when, before I leave home, I decide whether I want to live that day as a man or woman of peace, that is, to live at peace with others,” he said during an audience with visitors from Hungary in the Paul VI Audience Hall April 25.

“Peace comes when I decide to forgive, even if it is difficult, and this fills my heart with joy,” he said.

The pope met with about 1,200 Hungarian pilgrims, including laypeople, bishops, Cardinal Péter Erdo of Esztergom-Budapest and President Tamás Sulyok.

Before the audience, Sulyok also met privately with the pope, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, Vatican foreign minister.

“Some issues of common interest” that were discussed, the Vatican press office said, were “families, young people and attention toward the world’s most vulnerable Christian communities” as well as “the conflict in Ukraine, with particular reference to its humanitarian consequences and efforts to promote peace.”

The pope’s audience with the pilgrims came one year after his trip to Budapest April 28-30, 2023. He told them he was grateful for the trip, which he made as “a pilgrim, a brother and friend.”

“I was a pilgrim to pray together with you. To pray for Europe, for ‘the desire to build peace and to give the younger generations a future of hope, not war, a future full of cradles not tombs, a world of brothers and sisters, not walls,'” he said, quoting his own words after Mass in Budapest.

Jesus gave his disciples peace, he said. “Let us not forget, brothers and sisters, that the realization of this great gift begins in the heart of each of us.”

The pope also thanked them for having “an open heart toward Ukrainian refugees who have left their country because of the war. And I also appreciate your efforts to integrate those who live on the peripheries of society.”