Pope Francis said it was unfair to identify Islam with violence and terrorism, NBC News reported.
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Pope Francis visited the Knights of Columbus-sponsored Mercy Centre at Tauron Arena Kraków on Sunday, July 31st to greet 12,000 World Youth Day volunteers.
The pope went on to suggest that capitalism is another form of terrorism: “When you place at the center of the world economy the ‘God of Money, ‘ that’s terrorism against all humanity”.
Speaking to journalists aboard his return flight from Krakow, Poland, July 31, the pope also stressed that violence exists in all religions, including Catholicism, and it can not be pinned to one single religion.
For a second straight day, a huge crowd filled the meadow in the gentle countryside outside Krakow for Francis, whose five-day visit to southern Poland was the Argentine pontiff’s first-ever time in Eastern Europe. Security was very high through the pope’s visit, coming at a time of terror attacks in Western Europe.
Pope Francis has declared he will wait until the Australian justice system takes its course before taking a position on Cardinal George Pell who is under investigation for sexual abuse allegations against children.
Attending Francis’ closing Mass on Sunday were some of Poland’s top leaders, including President Andrzej Duda and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the conservative ruling Law and Justice party.
Polish police put the number at over 1.5 million. Francis announced that the next World Youth Day will take place in Panama in 2019.
The week-long event was Francis’ main focus on his first-ever trip to Eastern Europe.
“I don’t like to talk about Islamic terrorism”, Pope Francis admitted on the Papal flight, adding: “Terrorism grows when there is no alternative”. “This evening, with the rain coming down, along the street there were not only young people but also little old ladies”, the pope said, referring to the crowds cheering him as he rode by.
On his trip to Poland, Pope Francis missed a step and fell while celebrating mass at the Marian shrine of the Black Madonna in Częstochowa.A reporter asked him what happened, and he explained, “I was looking at the [image of] the Virgin and I forgot about the step…”
Francis, at another massive gathering in the same field Saturday, urged young people not to become “couch potatoes”, saying they should try to ignore computer screens and video games in favor of activism and political interaction.
As Pope Francis headed to a large meadow in Poland to celebrate a Mass he made a quick ride by auto to bless two buildings run by the Catholic charity Caritas. He nodded in approval as he chewed away.
Although the Mass brought the World Youth Day celebrations to an end, Pope Francis invited the youth to continue along the path that began with their pilgrimage to Krakow and bring the remembrance of God’s love to others.
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“Dear young people, we didn’t come into this work to “vegetate”, to take it easy, to make our lives a comfortable sofa to fall asleep on”.
