Francis cited current warfare between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as in Iraq and in Ukraine. He told pilgrims and tourists in St Peter's Square today that he was thinking of children killed, maimed or orphaned by war who "for toys, have the debris of war."
"I beg you, stop. I ask you with all my heart," Francis said.
He cited World War I-era Pope Benedict XV's denunciation of the Great War as a "useless massacre."
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