The Holy Father wanted, in a place that symbolizes that conflict that guards the remains of over 100.000 victims of the karst front, to pray for the millions of fallen of that war that a hundred years ago led to the completion of the national unity and the affirmation of the nation-states.
In the pilgrimage to the Shrine, the Pope met the men and women of the Defense who, like a hundred years ago, are at the service of the State.
The visit, organized by the Defense with the contribution of the local authorities, is another chapter of the ceremonies connected with the centenary of the "Great War".
Inside the Shrine of Redipuglia there was a religious function officiated together with the Italian military chaplains and the military ordinaries of the nations that participated in the conflict.
A function that has had the pontiff's appeal to move from the torpor of the souls synthesized in the "me who cares" to the cry of conversion its strongest moment.
At the end of the service, the Minister of Defense gave the pope a field altar used for the Eucharistic celebrations on the front. The Defense Chief of Staff handed over to the Holy Father the registration sheet of the soldier Giovanni Carlo Bergoglio, Bersagliere grandfather of the Pope who fought on the Karst in the "Great War".
Source: Army Majority Staff
