“War is madness,” said Pope Francis on Saturday, a madness that he is worried the world is slipping collectively back into.

According to the BBC, the Argentinian pontiff was speaking from Redipuglia cemetery near Slovenia, where some 100,000 Italian soldiers who perished in World War I are remembered.

He warned that with the proliferation of conflicts large and small around the globe, that humanity has already begun to fight a “piecemeal World War III.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“Humanity needs to weep, and this is the time to weep,” Francis said. “Even today, after the second failure of another world war, perhaps one can speak of a third war, one fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction.”

Pope Francis has condemned the practice of waging war in the name of God, and in recent months has called for an end to hostilities in Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Ukraine and areas of Africa.