United States of the World mourns Pope Francis
Secretary General Michele Capasso, Director Pia Balducci Molinari, the Council of Ambassadors, the Board of Directors and members of the United States of the World representing 181 countries and 16,000 civil society organizations, representatives of the branch offices and the International Scientific Committee express deep condolences for the ascent to Heaven of Pope Francis.
In a message sent to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, SG Capasso, among others, writes:
“Our heart is broken by the news of the ascent to Heaven of Our beloved Pope Francis: we wish to express through Him our deepest condolences for the passing of the Pope of All Nations, but at the same time our happiness for having had Him as the leader of the universal Church. I personally had the joy of meeting Him on several occasions and sharing with Him significant moments of His life and His Pontificate: from the trip to Jakarta last year to our first meeting in Luján in 2008, from His first trip to Lampedusa in July 2013 to His recent trips to Asia and Oceania and subsequent trips to Luxembourg and Belgium, from the meeting in the Vatican with Shimon Peres, Abu Mazen and Bartholomew I in 2014 to the one in Venice a year ago; unforgettable were our meetings in Manila and Abu Dhabi and others.
In these times we are experiencing in the world an immense famine of Love and a sense of the Common Good: a suicidal selfishness-understood as the pure pursuit of personal and corporate interests-has invaded every sphere of political, institutional and social life, contaminating all of humanity. The voice of Pope Francis, though lonely on several occasions, was the only one to nurture the sentiment that was closest to His heart: “HOPE”.
Yesterday in Rome, we were in St. Peter's Square for Holy Easter: when we saw and heard the Pope's faint voice a strong hope invested us and we never imagined what would happen a few hours later. Ideally, we gathered around the Pope and we would have liked to offer him the first draft of the program of an event dear to Him that we announced to him at our last meeting on October 16, 2024: the creation in Naples of a Shrine dedicated to the innocent victims of wars around the world, SO AS NOT TO FORGET.
The ceremony of deposition of the relics of innocent victims of wars in the Totem of Peace - symbol of the United States of the World - will take place on June 7, 2025, with the celebration of the Eucharist that we will dedicate to Pope Francis”.
