Rome, November 2, 2023 (KAP) Pope Francis celebrated a memorial Mass in a Rome cemetery on Thursday morning. On the feast of All Souls, he remembered all the deceased, especially the soldiers who died in wars. At the Rome War Cemetery, Pope, seated in a wheelchair, prayed among the rows of coffins. He placed a bouquet of white roses in a coffin. The Rome War Cemetery, created in 1947 in the Testaccio district, is a memorial to soldiers killed in the Second World War who came from Commonwealth countries.
Exactly the same thing happens today, the Pope continued in his freely delivered homily. In wars, not only in Europe, but also at a distance, lives are being destroyed without thinking about it. “Let us ask the Lord for peace and for people to stop killing each other in wars,” the Pope appealed to around 200 people at the cemetery of honor. Wars are always a defeat: “One wins, the other loses, but there is always a price to pay”.
Pope Francis usually celebrates masses on All Souls’ Day in Rome’s large cemeteries, in 2021 for example in the French military cemetery in the Italian capital. But the Nettuno US military cemetery with those killed in the Second World War and the Catacombs of Priscilla were also among them. Last year he visited the German cemetery in the Vatican for a moment of prayer.
There are 426 graves in the Rome War Cemetery. They are marked by vertical tombstones with the dates and places of birth and death of the deceased, as well as the coat of arms of the military unit to which they belonged.
On All Souls’ Day, November 2, the Catholic Church honors the deceased. Through prayer, intercession, alms and visits to the cemetery, the faithful traditionally commemorate the souls in purgatory on this day and dedicate indulgences to them. Christian festivals to commemorate the dead have existed since the 2nd century. The memorial day was officially established late – in 1915 by Pope Benedict XV.