Pope Francis has urged the world to shed its apathy in the face of what he sees as a third world war, intoning "war is madness" during a homily at the foot of a Fascist-era World War I monument near the Slovene border.
The pope said the "third war" was being "fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction." Remembering the victims of World War I, Francis noted that "today, too, the victims are many," fallen to behind-the-scenes "interests, geopolitical strategies, lust for money and power."
Saturday's visit is also infused with intensely personal meaning. The pope's grandfather fought in Italy's 1915-18 offensive against the Austro-Hungarian empire, surviving to impress upon the future pope the horror of war.
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