Pope Francis: After a nuclear war, humanity would have to ‘start from scratch’

Pope Francis said Wednesday that the image of Noah’s flood is “gaining ground in our subconscious” as the world considers the possibility of a nuclear war “that will extinguish us.”

“Our imagination appears increasingly concentrated on the representation of a final catastrophe that will extinguish us — what may happen with a possible nuclear war,” Pope Francis said March 16.

“The ‘day after’ — if there will still be days and human beings — we will have to start again from scratch.”

Speaking to pilgrims seated in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall for his live-streamed general audience, the pope said that people today “are under pressure, exposed to opposing stresses that confuse us.”

“On the one hand, we have the optimism of an eternal youth, kindled by the extraordinary progress of technology, that depicts a future full of machines that are more efficient and more intelligent than us, that will cure our ills and devise for us the best solutions so as not to die: the world of robotics,” he said.

Yet, on the other hand, there is the possibility of nuclear war.

“I do not want to trivialize the idea of progress, naturally. But it seems that the symbol of the flood is gaining ground in our subconscious,” the pope said.

“Besides, the current pandemic puts a heavy weight on our carefree representation of the things that matter, for life and its destiny.”

A litany prayer for Ukraine

The pope’s words came on the 21st day of the war in Ukraine, at the start of which Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces to be put on high alert, raising fears of the possibility of a nuclear war.

Pope Francis said at the end of the general audience that he wanted everyone to pray together in the pain of the war, asking the Lord for forgiveness and peace.

The pope then read a prayer written by Archbishop Domenico Battaglia of Naples.

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners. Lord Jesus, born under the bombs of Kyiv, have mercy on us. Lord Jesus, who died in his mother’s arms in a bunker in Kharkiv, have mercy on us,” he prayed.