Last Saturday, the main authority of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, said World War II is not a possibility but rather a reality in these days of many conflicts around the globe. The head of one of the biggest religions in the world visited an Italian war historical site to commemorate the centennial of the First World War, and also talked about today's worldwide conflicts, which would make bits and pieces of a bigger struggle; Pope Francis says World War III is actually already here.
The Pope visited Redipuglia, a World War I memorial entombing 100,000 Italian soldiers of the first great conflict of the 20th century; also, the religious leader took the time to visit a nearby cemetery for fallen soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, who the opposing figure in the conflict. During his visit, Pope Francis's World War III concerns were raised, as he remarked it was not necessarily one sole great conflict but rather a compost of many others like those in Ukraine, Iraq and Syria.
Pope Francis called World War III a "piecemeal", while talking about the devastating, chaotic and unnecessary nature of war, The Blaze reported.
The visit was also a personally emotional moment for the Pope, who was presented his grandfather's military records of the time he found in World War I by Italian authorities. Giovanni Carlo Bergoglio, the grandfather of Pope Francis (whose birth name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio) was from the Piedmont region and acted as a radio operator during the Isonzo campaign. This battle, along with many others in the region, is memorialized at the Redipuglia monument, which was built during Fascist rule at the brink of World War II.
The former soldier later emigrated to Argentina, where he eventually told his grandson about the horrors of war. With this experience, Pope Francis' World War III concerns were raised in the solemn act.
