Pope Francis has issued a new plea against all wars as he evoked the horror of the mass killing of Jews and other victims of the Nazis ahead of Saturday's Holocaust Memorial Day.
Pope Francis reacts on the day of the weekly general audience, in Paul VI hall at the Vatican, January 24, 2024. Reuters/Claudia Greco
Pope Francis has issued a new plea against all wars as he evoked the horror of the mass killing of Jews and other victims of the Nazis ahead of Saturday's Holocaust Memorial Day.
"The memory and condemnation of that horrible extermination of millions of people...may help everybody to not forget that the logic of hatred and violence can never be justified," he said during his Wednesday weekly audience.
"Let us not get tired of praying for peace, for conflicts to end, for weapons to stop, for relief for exhausted populations," Francis added.
The leader of the world's more than 1.35 billion Roman Catholics mentioned the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the bombing of civilians in "martyred Ukraine".
He repeated his assertion that "war is always a defeat" in which "the only winners, so to speak, are weapons manufacturers".
Reporting by Alvise Armellini
Russia targeted Ukraine with a record 728 drones overnight, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to send more defensive weapons to Kyiv and aimed unusually direct criticism at Russian President Vladimir Putin.
U.S. President Donald Trump defended former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday in a social media post that said his former ally was the victim of a "witch hunt," a term Trump has used to describe his own treatment by political opponents.
To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.
Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.