“Today, in fact, something we dreaded and hoped never to hear of again is threatened outright: the use of atomic weapons.'
The Sant’Egidio Community, a Catholic charity with close ties to the Vatican, organized the three-day event in Italy’s capital.
“Today peace has been gravely violated, assaulted and trampled upon, and this in Europe, on the very continent that in the last century endured the horrors of two world wars.” the pope lamented. Despite wars in too many parts of the world these days, he said, “the plea for peace cannot be suppressed. It rises from the hearts of mothers; it is deeply etched on the faces of refugees, displaced families, the wounded and the dying,’’ Francis said.
“Peace is holy. War can never be so. Humanity must put an end to wars, or it will be war to put an end to humanity,’’ it reads.