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Francis used a wheelchair at Rome's Commonwealth cemetery to
pass by the gravestones and to lay flowers during a visit on All
Souls Day, when the Roman Catholic Church commemorates all those
who have died.
"Wars are always a defeat, always. There is never a total
victory. One side wins over the other but behind that there is
always defeat in the price that has to be paid," he said in an
improvised homily during a Mass at the cemetery attended by
several ambassadors from Commonwealth countries.
Francis has called for a ceasefire in Gaza and the creation of
humanitarian corridors to help relieve the suffering of its
besieged inhabitants.
He has also called for a two-state solution to the Middle East
conflict, has said Israel has a right to defend itself from
attack, and has condemned a rise in antisemitism worldwide.
In intermittent rain Francis, 86, stood for longer periods
during the Mass than he has in more than a year, indicating that
his knee ailment may now be giving him fewer problems.
The cemetery, in an area of Rome that was the scene of street
fighting during World War Two, is the final resting place of
about 425 soldiers from Britain and its former colonies who died
while fighting in Italy.
Francis spoke of the tragedy of war.
"At the entrance, I was looking at the ages of the fallen,
mostly between 20 and 30. Truncated lives, lives without a
future, here," he said
"I thought of the parents, of the mothers who received that
letter: 'Madam, I have the honour of telling you your son is a
hero.' 'Yes, a hero, but they took him away from me'. So many
tears in these truncated lives," he said.
"The same thing is happening today. So many people, young and
not so young, in the wars of the world, even those closer to us,
in Europe and beyond ... so many dead".
(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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