Pope Francis declared, this Tuesday, the 19th, that the world is once again on the brink of nuclear war, just as it was during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Francis made the alarming statement in a message to Cardinal Peter Turkson, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, who organized the “Pacem in Terris” conference on September 19 and 20.

For the Pope, there is a great similarity between today’s world and that of 1963, the year in which Pope St. John XXIII. published the encyclical “Pacem in Terris” – precisely about “peace on earth”, as its name suggests.

Declaring that “our world is still in the hands of a third world war, which is being waged bit by bit and, in the tragic case of the conflict in Ukraine, not without the threat of nuclear weapons”, Francis pointed out that “the present moment is disturbingly similar to the period immediately before when in October 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of widespread nuclear annihilation.

Unfortunately, in the years since this apocalyptic threat, not only have the number and power of nuclear weapons increased, but so have other technologies of warfare, and even the long-standing consensus on the prohibition of chemical and biological weapons has fallen apart.”

The urgent need for disarmament The Pope continued: “The terrible destructive power of modern weapons is even more evident than the relations between states, as between individuals, which do not have to be regulated by armed force, but according to the principles of right reason.”

Regarding the importance of the “Pacem in Terris” conference, he hoped that “reflections, in addition to the analysis of current military and technological threats to peace, include a disciplined ethical reflection on the serious risks associated with the continued possession of nuclear weapons, on the urgent need for renewed progress in disarmament and development peace building initiative.”

Mentioning “the increasingly urgent ethical problems raised by the use, in modern warfare, of so-called ‘conventional weapons’, which should be used only for defensive purposes and not aimed at civilian targets”, Francis made the following vows:

“Let deeper reflection on this issue lead to a consensus that such weapons, with their enormous destructive power, should not be used in a way that causes unnecessary harm or unnecessary suffering.”

The Pope has repeatedly tried to tell the world that we are at war . Let’s recall, Pope Francis prophetically asked a journalist back in 2014 to refer to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and in Iraq.

The Pope said: ‘These are the fruits of war, we are at war, it is the Third World War, it has begun, albeit gradually, step by step.’ Faced with the refugee crisis itself, which has also ravaged Europe in an unprecedented way and shaken its foundations, the Pope almost symbolically goes to Sarajevo, where he cries out: ‘Never more war!’

“We are in the midst of the Third World War, which is being waged in parts and, in the context of global communication, we are experiencing a real war climate,” said Pope Francis in Sarajevo, explaining that “there are some who would deliberately want to create and provoke such a climate, especially those who seek to provoke conflicts between different cultures and civilizations, and those who invent wars in order to sell weapons.’

He also mentioned rulers who falsely proclaim peace and security while killing women and children for their own ends. Here, the Pope again prophetically tried to make it known that the war should not start but that it should continue, but again no one heard him.

And last year, during a general audience on the 83rd anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, Pope Francis said: ‘Today we are living through a ‘third world war’ – a war that is being waged on a piecemeal basis.’