Pope Francis said Wednesday there must be "reparation" for the "evil" committed during Sri Lanka's civil war, as he visited a Catholic shrine that was on the front line of the conflict.
The pope also called for forgiveness from victims of the 37-year conflict, which killed 100,000 people and devastated the Tamil-dominated north of the country.
"There are families here today which suffered greatly in the long conflict which tore open the heart of Sri Lanka," he said in a prayer at the Our Lady of Madhu church.
Sri Lankans should ask "for the grace to make reparation for our sins and for all the evil which this land has known", he said before hundreds of thousands of worshippers.
He called for the Tamil and Sinhalese ethnic communities to "rebuild the unity which was lost" in the conflict, which only ended in 2009.
Madhu, 300 kilometres (180 miles) north of Colombo, was a "no-fire zone" during much of the war and sheltered both Christians and non-Christians fleeing the violence.
But it was repeatedly hit by artillery, with Tamil rebels and government forces trading blame for the strikes.