ROME — Pope Francis said Wednesday war is a “monster” while calling out nations who sell weapons to terrorists as co-responsible for the carnage they inflict.
“The Iraqi people have the right to live in peace; they have the right to rediscover the dignity that belongs to them,” the pope said in his first public address in the Vatican following his return from Iraq.
“Their religious and cultural roots go back thousands of years: Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization,” he reflected. “Historically, Baghdad is a city of primary importance. For centuries, it housed the richest library in the world.”
“And what destroyed it? War. War is always that monster that transforms itself with the change of epochs and continues to devour humanity,” he said.
“But the response to war is not another war; the response to weapons is not other weapons,” the pontiff continued. “And I asked myself: who was selling the weapons to the terrorists?”
The pope seemed to encourage a public reckoning for anyone who provides arms to terrorists because they are partly to blame for the ongoing violence and destruction.
“Who sells weapons today to the terrorists – which are causing massacres in other areas, let’s think of Africa, for example?” he asked. “It is a question that I would like someone to answer.”
In his address, the pope said in that humanity needs a change of mindset in order to overcome the plague of wars and terrorism, a victory wrought not by weapons but by brotherhood.
“The response is not war, but the response is fraternity,” he said. “This is the challenge not only for Iraq. It is the challenge for many regions in conflict and, ultimately, the challenge for the entire world is fraternity.”
“Will we be capable of creating fraternity among us? Of building a culture of brothers and sisters? Or will we continue the logic Cain began: war?” he asked. “Brothers and sisters: Fraternity.”
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