The two sides were at a standoff over the city of Damietta in Egypt when Francis went to the Muslim camp to preach to the sultan, al-Kamil. “And he did this huge act of peace,” said Hawke, “and he should have been killed, but the sultan didn’t kill him.” In fact, the sultan was impressed with Francis and took care of him. “Francis wasn’t able to end the war,” said Hawke, “but it was a beautiful act of peace.”
Ethan Hawke suggested that the pope follow in the footsteps of Francis of Assisi with regard to Russia’s war in Ukraine. If Pope Francis “would lead a march from Belarus to Mariupol,” said Hawke, “and we would all go and we could bring the refugees to our homes, and priests and rabbis, we could all go and say, ‘You have to stop killing children.’”
Colbert pointed out that it is “hard to find a moral authority that people can agree on.” Hawke agreed and said he had been pondering where the leading voices speaking out for non-violence are, people like Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. The actor believes that Pope Francis is “one of the very few people I can think of that has that moral authority.”
