Pope Francis has attacked “the atmosphere of war” currently besetting the world as he urged Bosnians to pursue reconciliation efforts, 20 years after a conflict that ripped the country apart.

Many conflicts across the planet amount to “a kind of third world war being fought piecemeal and, in the context of global communications, we sense an atmosphere of war,” the pontiff said on Saturday in a mass at Sarajevo’s Olympic Stadium during a one-day visit to the Bosnian capital.

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“Some wish to incite and foment this atmosphere deliberately,” he added, attacking those who want to foster division for political ends or profit from war through arms dealing.

“But war means children, women and the elderly in refugee camps, it means forced displacement, destroyed houses, streets and factories: above all countless shattered lives.

“You know this well having experienced it here.”

The pontiff had earlier referred to Sarajevo, with its synagogues, churches and mosques side by side, as a “European Jerusalem”, a crossroads of cultures, nations and religions which required “the building of new bridges while maintaining and restoring older ones.”

In a reference to the legacy of the war, which left Bosnia permanently divided along ethnic lines, he urged the country’s Muslim, Serb and Croat communities to reach out to each other.

“In so doing, even the deep wounds of the recent past will be set aside,” Francis said in a meeting with officials of the rotating presidency.

The 78-year-old then headed in his popemobile to the stadium, where he was given a rapturous reception by the 65,000-strong crowd.

– AFP