“Please Lord, stop. No more wars.” It’s the invocation that marked the homily of the Mass celebrated by the Pope at the American war cemetery in the town of Nettuno – entirely unscripted – to commemorate the deceased and the victims of all wars. As Benedict XV did a century ago, Francis deplored “the useless massacres” of war. “Please Lord, stop. Never again. No more wars”, he exclaimed. “With war all is lost”, not only yesterday but even today, at a time of “piecemeal war.” Death is the fruit of every war: that’s why we must ask the Lord to gives us the grace to weep. Those tears were shed by an elderly woman in Hiroshima, by the countless women who received a letter that asked them to be “proud”, for their husbands, sons, nephews had died as “heroes” for the country. Those symbolical tears were shed by the Pope when – as he did in Auschwitz – he entered alone, in silence, in the Ardeatine Caves Memorial, before saying a prayer immediately after the Chief Rabbi of Rome Riccardo Di Segni.
Three intense hours of meditation and prayer, private and public. It enshrines Pope Francis’ All Souls Day: after the Verano and Prima Porta cemeteries he chose to commemorate the deceased with an itinerary – made not only of kilometers but with an ideal common denominator – that extends from the American Cemetery in the town of Nettuno to the Ardeatine Caves Masoleum. In Nettuno, upon his arrival, he stopped his car to lay flowers on the tombstones and touch some of the 7thousand white crosses, on which he laid the flowers. White and yellow roses were the floral tribute placed on the graves of the victims of the massacre of March 24 1944, in the disused quarries near the Via Ardeatina.
Hope is never disappointing, he said in his impromptu homily whispered in the form of a meditation in the town of Nettuno. Yet hope “often is born and takes root in so many human wounds”, causing unbearable suffering. Thus each one of us is led to look at the sky and pray:
“Please Lord, stop, never again, no more war, no more this useless slaughter. It’s better to hope without this destruction: youths… thousands, thousands, thousands… broken hopes. ‘Please, Lord, no more’. It must be repeated today, today that the world is again at war, and prepares to do so even more strongly”, was the warning with tragic topical relevance.
The Pope decrypts and reads the present times drawing from the wisdom of an elderly woman who, whilst looking at the ruins of Hiroshima “with mournful resignation” that women know how to live, said:
“Men do everything possible to declare and wage war, and in the end they destroy themselves.” This is war, the Pope said, “the destruction of ourselves.” The tears shed by this elderly woman are tears that humanity today must not forget: “This pride of this humanity that has not learned its lesson and seems not to want to learn it!.”
When many times in history men decide to wage war, they are convinced that they bring a new world, they are convinced of bringing a “springtime.” Yet it ends in winter, ugly, cruel, with the reign of terror and death:
“Today let us pray for all the deceased – the final remarks filled with the wounds of the present – all of them, but in a special way for the young, at a time in which so many die in the battles that take place every day in this piecemeal war. Let us pray also for the dead of today, those who die in war, even children and the innocent. This is the fruit of war: death. And may the Lord give us the grace to weep.”
As he did in Auschwitz, Francis entered the Ardeatine Caves Masoleum alone, with silent steps. He then recited a silent prayer in front of the iron gate, that lasted approximately 10 minutes. After the floral tribute, with unbroken silence, to the tombstones of the caves, he read a prayer alongside Rome’s Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, who had previously recited a prayer in Hebrew. Francis began by addressing God that is “with every man and every people who suffers oppression”, he then invoked God with a specific reference to the site which he decided to pay tribute to, after the Mass at the American Cemetery of Nettuno, on this November 2:
“God of faces and names – Francis said with a broken voice – God of each one of the three hundred and thirty-five men slaughtered here on 24 March 1944, whose remains repose in these tombs. You know their faces and their names. All of them, even the twelve who remain unknown to us; for you, no-one is unknown.”
“We know that your name – the Pope went on – means that you are not the God of the dead, but of the living; that your covenant of faithful love is stronger than death and is an assurance of resurrection.” “O Lord, in this place consecrated to the memory of the fallen for freedom and justice – his final invocation – make us remove the sandals of selfishness and indifference and cross the burning bush of this Mausoleum, let us listen in silence to Your name: “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob” God of Jesus, God of the living.” Before leaving the Masoleum, greeted by the applause of the crowd that patiently waited for him outside, the Pope signed the Book of Honour, with the following words: “These are the fruits of war: hatred, death, vengeance… Forgive us, Lord”.
