Pope Francis called war “the destruction of ourselves” in an emotional homily given yesterday (3 November) at a US military cemetery in Italy as he marked All Souls’ Day commemorating the dead.
During Mass at the cemetery 60 km outside of Rome, Francis said in an off-the-cuff homily that the sight of the many gravestones should stand as a call for peace.
“This is perhaps the prayer that naturally arises, looking at this cemetery, ‘Please Lord, stop, no more, no more war, no more this useless slaughter, as [Pope] Benedict XV said’,” he added.
Speaking to a large crowd that including members of the military, politicians and diplomats, the pope said that humanity hasn’t learned, or hasn’t wanted to learn, the lessons of war.
“That’s war, the destruction of ourselves … it leaves wounds in the heart, and so many tears,” he added.
“How often in history, when men think of making war, they are convinced of bringing a new world, they are convinced that they are making spring,” the pope said. “It ends in winter; ugly, cruel, a reign of terror, of death,” he continued.
Calling for prayers for all the dead, the pope made special mention of those “who are dying in the battle every day,” referring to what he has called “a war of pieces,” or the many eruptions of violence and attacks around the globe.
Francis laid flowers on 10 graves among the 7,680 American war dead buried in the Cemetery in Nettuno which also commemorates a further 3,095 who went missing in campaigns to liberate southern and central Italy during World War II.
Francis prays on All Souls day in the military cemetery of Nettuno ©PA
Later the pope continued to the Ardeatine Caves, the site of one of the worst massacres of Nazi-occupied Rome.
Francis prayed in memory of those who fell defending “freedom and justice,” saying that he hoped that the site of the massacre might be a place where others find the resolve to fight “selfishness and indifference.”
He again laid flowers and signed the guest book, writing:
“These are the fruits of war: hatred, death and vendetta. Forgive us, Father.”
The caves commemorate the Nazi murder of 335 Italians in reprisal for an attack on Nazi troops marching through Rome. They included 68 soldiers as well artists, farmers, a priest and a diplomat. While some were members of the resistance, many had no partisan involvement and 73 were singled out because they were Jewish.
Francis is the fourth pope to visit the caves, after Paul VI, Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
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