Pope Francis on Friday appealed to religious leaders to help bring the world back from “the edge of a delicate precipice” and voice opposition to a new rearmament race, which the pontiff said was reshaping spheres of influence. of the Cold War era.
Francis spoke on his first day in Bahrain at the end of a forum on East-West dialogue, promoted by the king of the Gulf country, where Christians can practice their faith publicly in churches.
The visit follows the pope’s policy of improving ties with the Islamic world following a historic visit to Abu Dhabi in 2019 – the first by a pontiff to the Arabian Peninsula. He has visited around ten predominantly Muslim countries since his election in 2013.
Francis, who suffers from a knee problem that forces him to get around in a wheelchair and with the aid of a cane, wove his speech around the role of religions in promoting peace, disarmament and social justice.
“After two terrible world wars, a cold war that for decades kept the world in suspense, catastrophic conflicts taking place in all parts of the globe and amid accusations, threats and condemnations, we remain on the edge of a delicate precipice and we do not want to fall. “, he said in a gleaming marble courtyard of the royal palace.
Seemingly referring to Ukraine, Francis condemned a situation in which “some potentates are caught up in a resolute struggle for partisan interests, reviving outdated rhetoric, redesigning opposing spheres of influence and blocs”.
Francis, who supports a total ban on nuclear weapons and has often condemned the global arms trade, said religious leaders cannot support wars, in apparent reference to Russian Orthodox Church patriarch Kirill, who enthusiastically supported Ukraine’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia and which the pope had already implicitly criticized before.
*Reproduction of this content is prohibited
