Pope Francis told an interfaith summit that religion should never be used to justify violence and urged faith leaders to oppose war leaders’ “childish” whims.
Speaking at an East-West dialogue conference in Bahrain, the head of the Catholic Church warned that the world was on the “brink of a delicate precipice” and warned of a new race to rearm that was redesigning Cold War-era spheres of influence.
Apparently referring to Ukraine, Francis condemned a situation where “a few potentates are caught up in a resolute struggle for partisan interests, reviving obsolete rhetoric, redesigning spheres of influence and opposing blocs”.
“We appear to be witnessing a dramatic and childlike scenario: In the garden of humanity, instead of cultivating our surroundings, we are playing instead with fire, missiles and bombs, weapons that bring sorrow and death, covering our common home with ashes and hatred,” he said.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which sent an envoy to the conference, has strongly supported the Kremlin in its war and justified it on religious grounds.