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.
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Pope Francis dropped in at World Youth Day 2016 where he warned today’s technology had its dangers, chastising “drowsy and boring kids who confuse happiness with a sofa”, and urging them to get out and live life rather than spending it glued to their smartphones.
“I do not like to speak of Islamic violence because everyday when I look through the papers, I see violence here in Italy”, the pope told reporters.
‘And these are baptized Catholics. “Not all Muslims are violent, not all Catholics are violent”.
The youth gathering was Francis’ main focus during his pilgrimage to Poland, but over five days in this deeply Catholic nation he also prayed in silence at the former Nazi Auschwitz death camp and implored God to keep away a devastating wave of terrorism now hitting the world. “This is not just and it is not true”, he told reporters on Sunday. The attackers murdered 84-year-old Father Jacques Hamel, slitting his throat.
As for the Islamic State group, he said it ‘presents itself with a violent identity card, but that’s not Islam’.
The pope has previously vowed zero tolerance for sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has said he would sack bishops found guilty of committing abuse or covering it up. We have them too. “When fundamentalism goes to the point of killing – you can even kill with the tongue”.
“You can kill with the tongue as well as the knife”, he said, in an apparent reference to a rise in populist parties fuelling racism and xenophobia.
“I think that in almost all religions there is a always a small fundamentalist group”, he said, adding “We have them”, referring to Catholicism. “This is not right and it is not true”, he said.
“The first information that arrived was confusing”, Pope Francis told journalists. “We should wait for justice and not judge beforehand (or) a verdict by the press, a verdict based on gossip”.
Pope Francis was also asked if he was all right after he stumbled and fell during Mass outside the Marian shrine of Jasna Gora in Czestochowa July 28. “It was an experience I will never forget”. “If I had tried to resist, then there would have been consequences”. That is how history is made, that is how we grow.
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Later Sunday, on his way to the airport, Francis met with hundreds of young volunteers to thank them for their work.
