Pope says war is the suicide of humanity

June 03, 2013 - “War is the suicide of humanity because it kills the heart and kills love,” Pope Francis said on Sunday. He was speaking at a morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta residence, which was attended by a group of about 80 people, consisting of relatives of Italian soldiers killed in peacekeeping missions in the last 4-5 years, particularly in Afghanistan, along with a number of soldiers wounded during the missions. The occasion was the June 2 Italian Republic Day. Citing the Gospel episode of the centurion pleading with Jesus for the life of his servant, the Pope said God hears the prayers of each one of us – He listens to everyone with His heart, and loves “from the heart”. The Holy Father said, "Today we have come to pray for our dead, for our wounded, for the victims of the madness that is war! It is the suicide of humanity, because it kills the heart, it kills precisely that which is the message of the Lord: it kills love! Because war comes from hatred, from envy, from desire for power, and – we’ve seen it many times - it comes from that hunger for more power.”
So many times, the Pope noted, we’ve seen “the great ones of the earth want to solve” local problems, economic problems, economic crises “with a war.” This is because for them , money is more important than people. And war is just that: it is an act of faith in money, in idols, in idols of hatred, in the idol that leads to killing one’s brother, which leads to killing love like Cain. God our Father weeps for this madness of ours, asking us, ‘Where is your brother?’ Who says to the powerful of the earth, ‘Where is your brother? What have you done!’” At the end of the Mass, the “Prayer for Italy,” composed by Blessed John Paul II, was recited. Afterwards, the ecclesial community of the Military Ordinariate offered the Holy Father a hand-crafted terracotta sculpture from Naples, representing Saint Joseph the Worker showing Jesus a carpenter’s tools. The child Jesus is holding a basket with objects that call to mind the Crucifixion, including a hammer and nails.