Francis told the public in St. Peter's Square on Sunday that ``this cruel and senseless war'' continues after more than a month, representing ``a defeat for all.''
He lamented that parents are burying their children, and ``the powerful decide and the poor die.'' Once again, he didn't cite Russia by name as the aggressor.
Referring to reports that about one-half of all the children in Ukraine have been displaced by the conflict, Francis said that ``war doesn't just devastate the present but also the future of society.''
The pontiff reiterated his condemnation of war as barbarous and sacrilegious. He said that ``humanity must understand that the moment has come to abolish war, to cancel war from the history of man before it cancels man from history.''
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