With this cover we would like to insistently invite our readers to pray for peace. In fact, war is becoming a regular sight (the one closest to us, in Ukraine, has now slipped past half of the news, while most of the other wars are not newsworthy). Instead, the expanding military alliances and the supplies of weapons and ammunition delivered almost secretly make the news  to the parties in conflict, attempts at an increasingly uncertain dialogue. It is a show that however has a single subject, that of implementing the famous maxim: «Si vis pacem, bellum for» (If you want peace, prepare for war), which seems to be the line today  of prevailing action. 

It is also true that there are calls from Pope Francis, who in every public act stigmatizes the evil of war with ever stronger words; there are also many other words from his predecessors. Those pronounced by the popes starting from Pius IX are collected by Giampiero Gamaleri in a book, The white smoke of peace. The voice of twelve Popes against the war (Ed. Pages, 2023). Twelve pontiffs (there have been many from 1846 to today), but only one voice, to call the world against the war. We also recently remembered the sixtieth anniversary of John XXIII's encyclical Pacem in Terris, published on 11 April 1963. There is therefore no shortage of words and reasons against the war, indeed they are extremely convincing. Unfortunately there is no listening and therefore the temptation arises to think that they are ineffective and defenseless in the face of human obstinacy. 

This is therefore the moment to recommit ourselves to prayer; it is the moment to often repeat the very brief words of Benedict XV: "Queen of peace, pray for us". For there to be peace, we need men of peace, men with hearts open to peace. But who can touch hearts if not the Lord? His words are his, full of realism, but also of hope: «The heart is more fallacious than anything else and is difficult to heal; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the mind and test the hearts" (Jer 17, 9). His promise is his: "I will give you a new heart, I will put a new spirit within you, I will take away the heart of stone from you and give you a heart of flesh" (Ez 36, 26). Let us not tire of raising prayers for the Lord to bring about peace on earth!