VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis ended his General Audience on Ash Wednesday by urging care and prayer for “the war-torn Ukraine, Palestine, and Israel who suffer so much,” and for “intensifying prayer, especially to ask for peace in the world.”

 Francis centered his Wednesday remarks around martyrdom. He recognized first the “many” early martyrs of the Church, then shifted his focus to contemporary martyrs — of whom there are many, he said, “perhaps more than in the early days.”

 He recognized the 95-year-old Cardinal Ernest Simoni, who was clandestinely ordained as a priest and then imprisoned for 28 years in communist Albania. 

 The pope made Simoni a Cardinal after meeting him in Albania in 2014. He called Simoni, in attendance Wednesday, a “living martyr.”

 Then Francis shifted his focus to those martyrs, brothers, and sisters “who are most in need”: Ukrainians, Palestinians, and Israelis “who are suffering because of war.”

 He urged those listening to and reading his words to use Lent "as an opportunity for conversion and inner renewal in listening to the Word of God." 

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