Pope Francis: My grandfather taught me to loathe war
Pope Francis recalled at his Wednesday general audience how his veteran grandfather taught him to loathe war.
Speaking in the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall on March 23, the pope offered a “personal testimony” to the power of hearing an elderly person tell their life story.
He said that he heard about the horrors of the First World War directly from his grandfather, Giovanni Bergoglio, a radio operator caught up in fighting at the Piave River in northern Italy.
“I learned hatred and anger for war from my grandfather, who fought at the Piave in 1914, and he passed on to me this rage at war, because he told me about the suffering of a war,” the pope said.