Pope: I felt presence of murdered souls at Auschwitz

Pope Francis says he felt the souls of those murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau during his silent visit to the former Nazi death camp in Poland last week.

“The great silence of the visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau was more eloquent than any word spoken could have been,” Francis says during his weekly public audience at the Vatican.

“In that silence I listened: I felt the presence of all the souls who passed through that place; I felt the compassion, the mercy of God, which a few holy souls were been able to bring even into that abyss,” he says.

Visiting Auschwitz, the pope says, made him pray to resolve the evils of today’s world.

“Looking upon that cruelty, in that concentration camp,” he says, “I thought immediately of the cruelties of today, which are similar — not as concentrated as in that place, but everywhere in the world, this world that is sick with cruelty, pain, war, hatred, sadness; and this is why I always ask you for the prayer, that the Lord give us peace.”

— JTA