Pope Benedict XVI paid homage Sunday to the victims of World War II, visiting a Polish military cemetery at the site of a decisive battle in southern Italy and praying that peace may prevail over war today.
Benedict, who was forced to join the Hitler Youth as a child in Germany, made a pilgrimage to the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino, which was leveled during a 1944 Allied bombardment and was the site of a bloody ground battle between German and Allied forces.
“In this place, where so many lost their lives … we pray especially for the souls of the fallen, commending them to God’s infinite mercy, and we pray for an end to the wars that continue to afflict our world,” Benedict said in English at the end of Mass celebrated at the foot of the monastery in the city of Cassino.
Wikipedia has an article on Monte Cassino here …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Cassino_Abbey
Towards the end of the article, it mentions that German army officers
transferred more than a thousand priceless codices and manuscripts
to the Vatican from Monte Cassino. The Allies leveled the compound,
mistakenly believing it had become a German redoubt.
Over the centuries, Monte Cassino, was destroyed/damaged
several times by various agents, such as earthquakes, Lombards,
Saracens, Napoleonic troops, Allies, etc. IIRC, its motto
translated from Latin means something like, “Cut down, it springs
up again.”