Pope calls for an end to all wars on battlefield site

POPE Benedict XVI prayed yesterday for an end to all wars, making a pilgrimage to the site of a decisive World War II battle and decrying the destruction and lives lost there.

The German-born Benedict visited the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino, which was levelled during a 1944 Allied bombardment and was the site of a bloody ground battle between German and Allied forces.

The pope, who growing up in Germany was forced to join the Hitler Youth, cited the 65th anniversary of Monte Cassino’s destruction before thousands gathered for Mass in Cassino, at the foot of a rocky hill on which the monastery sits.