“The Syrian catastrophe is still the most serious man-made humanitarian disaster since the end of the Second World War,” says Cardinal Mario Zenari, the apostolic nuncio to the war-torn country.

On March 15—a date that marked the 11th anniversary of the beginning of the bloodshed, the cardinal weighed the immense costs of the fighting: at least 500,000 dead, more than 11 million driven from their homes, and a massive exodus particularly of young people, leaving Syria with grim prospects for the future.

“Don’t let hope die,” Cardinal Zenari pleads, lamenting that the world has grown accustomed to the continued fighting in Syria, creating no momentum for peace.