Pope Francis said on Monday he was really afraid of the danger of a nuclear war and that the world now stood at “the very limit.”  According to his comments, the world is one step away from a devastating nuclear war.

The Pope made the comment as he flew off for a visit to Chile and Peru, and the statement comes just after Hawaii issued a false missile alert that provoked panic in the U.S. state and highlighted the risk of possible unintended nuclear war with North Korea. The mistaken alert underscored the risk of potentially entering an unintentional war with North Korea. Hawaii Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard said Sunday that the false alert shows the need for direct negotiations with North Korea.

But when asked if he was worried about the possibility of nuclear war, Pope Francis said: “I think we are at the very limit. I am really afraid of this. One accident is enough to precipitate things.”

Although the Pope did not specifically mention Hawaii or North Korea, he did say that stockpiling nuclear weapons is against the teaching of the Catholic church. According to One America News Network, Pope Francis has often discussed the danger of nuclear warfare. Back in November, the Pope appeared to harden the Catholic Church’s teaching against nuclear weapons, saying countries should not stockpile them even for the purpose of deterrence.

As reporters boarded his plane bound for Chile, Vatican officials handed out a photograph taken in 1945 that shows a young Japanese boy carrying his dead brother on his shoulders following the U.S. nuclear attack on Nagasaki. “I was moved when I saw this. The only thing I could think of adding were the words ‘the fruit of war’,” Pope Francis said, referring to a caption put on the back of the image. “I wanted to have it reprinted and distributed because an image like this can be more moving than a thousand words. That is why I wanted to share it with you,” he said.