A crowd broke into the Capitol after United States President Donald Trump urged a meeting of supporters to go to the building and “fight like hell” to protest his defeat in the United States in the November presidential election, which he, without factual basis, claims to have been “stolen”
The riot left one Capitol police officer and four others dead.
“I offer an affectionate greeting to the people of the United States, shaken by the recent siege of Congress,” said the pope in comments made inside the Apostolic Palace, rather than from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square due to the pandemic. “I pray for those who lost their lives, five (people), in these dramatic moments.”
“Nothing is gained from violence and much is lost,” he said.
“I urge state officials and the entire population to maintain a high sense of responsibility with the aim of calming souls, promoting national reconciliation and safeguarding democratic values rooted in American society,” said Francis.
Then he prayed to the Virgin Mary, patron of the Church in the United States, to “help to keep the culture of encounter alive, the culture of care, as a superior way of building the common good together” with “all who live in that land . “
In separate comments to a private Italian TV network to be broadcast on Sunday night, Francis expressed his astonishment at the crowd’s attack. In that interview with Mediaset’s Channel 5, he said “in the most mature reality, there is always something that doesn’t work, people who follow a path against the community, against democracy and against the common good”.