The Vatican press office has published the remarks made by the Pope at the 36th “Cry for Peace” event organized by the Sant’ Egidio community and held in Rome’s Coliseum.

“This year our prayer has become a heartfelt plea, because today peace has been gravely violated, assaulted and trampled upon, and this in Europe, on the very continent that in the last century endured the horrors of two world wars – and we are experiencing a third,” the Pope said. “Let us never grow resigned to war; let us cultivate seeds of reconciliation. Today let us raise to heaven our plea for peace.”