Pope Denounces 'Vile' Syria Attack In His Easter Message

Pope Francis used his Easter address Sunday to speak out against the most recent bombing in Syria.

In an “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the City and the World”) speech with an audience of thousands, Francis called for the support of those working to bring peace to Syrians, who are “so greatly suffering from a war that continues to sow horror and death,” he said at the Vatican on Sunday.

“Yesterday saw the latest vile attack on fleeing refugees, resulting in the death and injury of many,” he continued. “May he grant peace to the entire Middle East, beginning with the Holy Land, as well as in Iraq and Yemen.”

At least 126 people, including 68 children, were killed in a bomb attack Saturday near Aleppo when a vehicle loaded with explosives hit buses transporting evacuees from mostly government-held towns. The attack left many more injured, UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Francis has been vocal in condemning actions in Syria. In one his weekly speeches earlier this month, he spoke out against the use of chemical weapons in the region and made an appeal to “the consciences of those who have political responsibilities, on a local and international level, to halt this tragedy and bring relief to the population that has been sorely tried by war for far too long.”

Francis also called for peace in Ukraine and famine-stricken South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He’s also acknowledged “all those victimized by old and new forms of slavery, inhuman labour, illegal trafficking, exploitation and discrimination, and grave forms of addiction.”