WORLD WAR III HAS STARTED POPE FRANCIS

The pope prayed at a cemetery for some 15,000 soldiers from five nations of the Austro-Hungarian empire [AP]

"Even today, after the second failure of  another  world  war, perhaps one can speak of a third war,  one  fought  piecemeal, with crimes, massacres,  destruction. " Pope Francis has said the spate of conflicts around the globe today were effectively a "piecemeal" Third World War, condemning the arms trade and "plotters of terrorism" sowing death and destruction. "Humanity needs to weep and this is the time to weep," Francis said in the homily of a Mass during a visit to Italy's largest war memorial, a large, Fascist-era monument where more than 100,000 soldiers who died in World War One are buried. Even today, after the second failure of another world war, perhaps one can speak of a third war, one fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction. Pope Francis The pope began his brief visit to northern Italy on Saturday by first praying in a nearby, separate cemetery for about 15,000 soldiers from five nations of the Austro-Hungarian empire which were on the losing side of the Great War that broke out 100 years ago. "War is madness," he said in his homily before the massive, sloping granite memorial, made of 22 steps on the side of hill with three crosses at the top. "Even today, after the second failure of another world war, perhaps one can speak of a third war, one fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction," he said. In the past few months, Francis has made repeated appeals for an end to conflicts in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Gaza and parts of Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Gaza and parts of Africa. "War is irrational; its only plan is to bring destruction: it seeks to grow by destroying," he said. "Greed, intolerance, the lust for power. These motives underlie the decision to go to war and they are too often justified by an ideology ...," he said. Re-Share if you agree to Beat Censorship

TERRORIST ORANGE ORDER KICK POPE CALLING HALT TO SYRIA INVASION

Pope Francis attends a prayer calling for peace in Syria, in Saint Peter’s square at the Vatican today. Photograph: Tony Gentile/Reuters

Pope Francis attends a prayer calling for peace in Syria, in Saint Peter’s square at the Vatican today. Photograph: Tony Gentile/Reuters

• Topics:
• News
• World
• Middle East
• Bashar Al Assad
• Lennie Tallud
• Pope Francis
• Roman Catholics
• France
• Italy
• Syria

Sat, Sep 7, 2013, 20:26

First published:Sat, Sep 7, 2013, 20:26

   

A sombre-looking Pope Francis made an impassioned appeal to avert a widening of Syria’s conflict today, urging world leaders to pull humanity out of a “spiral of sorrow and death”.

Francis, who two days ago branded a military solution in Syria “a futile pursuit”, led the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in a global day of prayer and fasting for peace in Syria, the Middle East and the world.

“Violence and war lead only to death, they speak of death! Violence and war are the language of death!” Francis said at the midpoint of a five-hour prayer service before tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square.

The United States and France are considering military action against Damascus to punish president Bashar al-Assad for a chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21 that killed hundreds of people. Assad’s government denies it was responsible.

The service was punctuated by music, prayer, the reciting of the rosary and long periods of silence in which the participants were asked to meditate on the need for peace to vanquish the destruction of war.

“We have perfected our weapons, our conscience has fallen asleep, and we have sharpened our ideas to justify ourselves. As if it were normal, we continue to sow destruction, pain, death!” said Francis, who wore his simple white cassock instead of ceremonial robes to the service.

“At this point I ask myself: Is it possible to change direction? Can we get out of this spiral of sorrow and death? Can we learn once again to walk and live in the ways of peace?”

He then asked “each one of us, from the least to the greatest, including those called to govern nations, to respond: Yes, we want it!”

When he announced the prayer vigil last Sunday, Francis asked Catholics around the world to pray and fast and invited members of other religious to take part in any way they saw fit in the hope that a wider war could be averted.

“That’s very scary, very scary,” said Lennie Tallud, a clinical lab scientist visiting St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. Asked whether she thought prayers would make a difference, she said: “Definitely, for sure. No doubt. I think it would - 100 percent.”

Muslims pray with pope

Yaha Pallavicini, a leader of Italy’s Muslim community, attended the prayer service with other Muslims.

“Praying for the intention of peace is something that can only help fraternity and, God willing, avoid more war,” he told Reuters. “As Muslims who want peace we have to work so that the values of faith and dialogue prevail over the destruction of peoples.”

In his address, the pope, who for most of the service sat silently behind an altar on the steps of the largest church in Christendom, stressed the power of prayer to change the world.

“This evening, I ask the Lord that we Christians, and our brothers and sisters of other religions, and every man and woman of good will, cry out forcefully: violence and war are never the way to peace!” he said.

“Let everyone be moved to look into the depths of his or her conscience and listen to that word which says: Leave behind the self-interest that hardens your heart, overcome the indifference that makes your heart insensitive towards others, conquer your deadly reasoning, and open yourself to dialogue and reconciliation,” he said.