Pope appeals for peace at site of WWII battle
Benedict XVI prayed and paid homage to victims of war at an abbey in Cassino, Italy.
CASSINO, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI paid homage yesterday to the victims of World War II, visiting a Polish military cemetery at the site of a decisive battle in southern Italy and praying that peace may prevail over war today.
Benedict, who was forced to join the Hitler Youth as a child in Germany, made a pilgrimage to the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino, which was leveled during a 1944 Allied bombardment and was the site of a bloody ground battle between German and Allied forces.
"In this place, where so many lost their lives . . . we pray especially for the souls of the fallen, commending them to God's infinite mercy, and we pray for an end to the wars that continue to afflict our world," Benedict said in English at the end of Mass celebrated at the foot of the monastery in the city of Cassino.
Later, he lit a candle at the austere Polish cemetery cut into the mountainside near the monastery and prayed that God give today's victims of war "the strength of invincible hope, the courage of daily actions of peace."
The cemetery contains the remains of Polish troops who, fighting alongside the Allies, died trying to take control of the abbey and surrounding positions from German troops. The battle for the monastery was decisive for the Allied advance on Rome, 80 miles to the north.
The Vatican stressed that Benedict was praying for all the war's fallen from all nations, including those being remembered during the U.S. Memorial Day holiday.
Benedict noted that all Benedictine monasteries - including the rebuilt one at Monte Cassino - carry the word Pax, or peace, at their entrances.
"This is raised as a silent call to reject all forms of violence and to build peace: in families, in communities, among peoples and within all humanity," the pope said during a prayer service in the abbey's basilica.
Benedict also was making a personal pilgrimage to the Monte Cassino monastery, which has long been dear to him. It was founded in 529 by St. Benedict of Nursia, known as the father of Western monasticism and a patron saint of Europe. The pope has spoken frequently about his strong affinity for St. Benedict, a hermit whose writings became the basis for the Benedictine order.