“We need to work together to foster awareness that if one member of our family suffers, we all suffer,” Pope Francis said.

Japan, the United States and South Korea are the only nations in the OECD group of developed economies that have the death penalty.

The pope also urged prayers for all those who endure persecution because of their faith today.

“The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possession of atomic weapons is immoral,” he said. “We will be judged on this.”

Sivori, a 77-year-old member of the Salesian order, is an assistant principal at a Salesian school in Udon Thani, in northeast Thailand.

The pope reminded priests, religious and seminarians that the fervor of evangelization “is nurtured by a double encounter: with the face of the Lord and with the faces of our brothers and sisters.”