Pope Francis today attacked "the atmosphere of war" besetting the world as he urged Bosnians to step up reconciliation efforts, 20 years after a conflict that ripped the country apart on ethnic lines.
Many conflicts across the planet amount to "a kind of third world war being fought piecemeal and, in the context of global communications, we sense an atmosphere of war," the pontiff said in a mass at Sarajevo's Olympic Stadium during a one-day visit to the Bosnian capital.
"Some wish to incite and foment this atmosphere deliberately," he added, attacking those who want to foster division or profit from war through arms dealing.
"But war means children, women and the elderly in refugee camps, it means forced displacement, destroyed houses, streets and factories: above all countless shattered lives.
"You know this well having experienced it here.
