Pope Francis told reporters Sunday that there are violent persons in every religion and that if speaking of “Islamic violence”, he should mention “Catholic violence”.
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He then said that he doesn’t like to talk about Islamic violence because he sees violent acts perpetrated by baptized Catholics in Italy all the time.
Pope Francis has said he will not label Islam as “terrorism” because it would be unfair and warned Europe was pushing its young into the hands of extremists.
As for the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant group, he said it “presents itself with a violent identity card, but that’s not Islam”.
“One thing is true: I think that in almost all religions there is always a small group of fundamentalists”, the pontiff noted, adding that it was a problem also for Christians.
Francis stopped at a Krakow church during his visit to implore God to protect people from the “devastating wave” of terrorism around the world. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack and hailed the two young attackers as their soldiers.
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Pope Francis greets faithful as he arrives to the Campus Misericordiae during World Youth Day in Brzegi near Krakow, Poland, July 31, 2016.
Since his election in 2013, Francis has made an effort to reach out to the Muslim community by calling for increased interfaith dialogue and support.
Despite a Catholic priest having his throat slit by Muslims in France and another being stabbed for helping a Syrian “refugee” in Belgium, Pope Francis is demanding that priests and nuns take in Muslims. “When you place at the center of the world economy the ‘god of money, ‘ that’s terrorism against all humanity”. “How many youths have we Europeans left empty of ideals?”.
Pope Francis endorsed these gestures and sentiments.
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“Of course there are extremists in all religions and in secular movements as well, and we must not generalize about people’s religions”, said Rabbi David Rosen, the global director of Interreligious Affairs at the American Jewish Committee (AJC), who joined Pope Francis on his visit to Auschwitz last Friday along with other Jewish leaders. Nor did he cite members of any other religious group flying airliners into office buildings full of people.
