Pope Francis has travelled to Bosnia Herzegovina with the aim of promoting peace and reconciliation twenty years after the end of the civil war that devastated the former Yugoslav republic. <br /><br /> Over 60,000 people turned out for a mass held by Francis at a stadium in Sarajevo, a city full of mosques and churches once known for being a symbol of religious and ethnic diversity. <br /><br /> Speaking to the crowd, the Pope warned:<br /><br /> “In the times we’re living in, God aspires for peace but the will to build it clashes with the fact that in our world there are several armed conflicts taking place, a kind of Third World War in several places.”<br /><br /> Earlier Pope Francis met with the three-member Bosnian presidency and spoke of how peace initiatives between the country’s Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks showed “how the deepest wounds can be healed”. <br /><br /> Pope Francis’ arrival in Sarajevo also comes days after the entry into force of a landmark EU agreement on closer ties with the country.
