“Looking at the age of these fallen, the majority 20 to 30, lives cut short, lives with no future here, I thought of the parents,” the pope said.
“The mothers who receive that letter, ‘Madam, I have the honour to tell you that your son is a hero’ - ‘yes, a hero, but he was taken from me’.
“So many tears in these lives cut short.
“And I could not help but think of today’s wars.
“The same thing happens today, so many people, young and not so young, in the wars of the world, even those closest to us, in Europe and beyond.
“So many deaths! Life is destroyed without conscientiousness of it.
“Today, thinking of the dead, in the memory of the dead and in hope, let us ask the Lord for peace, so that people no longer kill each other in wars.”
The pope has repeatedly called for an end to fighting in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion and for a ceasefire in Gaza.
He has also spoken of the many “forgotten” conflicts, such as those in Yemen and Syria.
ANSA
