The head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, has claimed that wars are always a defeat and there are no real winners in any war.
The Pope made this assertion on Thursday, while carrying out a mass at the World War Two military cemetery, to commemorate All Souls Day, a day when the Roman Catholic Church commemorates all those who have died.
Pope Francis while rolling around in a wheelchair at Rome’s Commonwealth cemetery to pass by the gravestones and to lay flowers during the visit said; “Wars are always a defeat, always. There is never a total victory. One side wins over the other but behind that there is always defeat in the price that has to be paid”.
As maintained by Reuters, the pope has called for a ceasefire in Gaza and the creation of humanitarian corridors to help relieve the suffering of its besieged inhabitants.
He has also called for a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict, has said Israel has a right to defend itself from attack, and has condemned a rise in antisemitism worldwide.
Speaking on the tragedy of war, the Catholic leader said; “At the entrance, I was looking at the ages of the fallen, mostly between 20 and 30. Truncated lives, lives without a future, here,”
“I thought of the parents, of the mothers who received that letter: ‘Madam, I have the honour of telling you your son is a hero.’ ‘Yes, a hero, but they took him away from me’. So many tears in these truncated lives”,
“The same thing is happening today. So many people, young and not so young, in the wars of the world, even those closer to us, in Europe and beyond… so many dead”.
The Mass was attended by several ambassadors from Commonwealth countries.
