Pope Francis waves during a press conference on the plane after his visit to Krakow, Poland for the World Youth Days, on Sunday.
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Muslims have attended Catholic Sunday mass in churches around France to express solidarity and sorrow following the brutal jihadist murder of a priest in Normandy, the latest in a series of attacks.
“I do not like to speak of Islamic violence because every day when I look through the papers, I see violence here in Italy”, the pope told reporters.
“There is news about someone killing his fiancee or his mother-in-law, or committing other crimes”, Francis added, noting that the perpetrators of these crimes were often “baptized Catholics”.
The pope told reporters: “If I talk about Islamic violence, then I also have to talk of Catholic violence”.
Instead, the pope said, that those who choose to enter fundamentalist groups, such as the Islamic State, do so because “they have been left empty” of ideals, work and values.
“It’s like a fruit salad, everything’s in there”.
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.
He added that every religion has its “little group of fundamentalists”.
He responded that it was “not fair to identify Islam with violence and terrorism”.
“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.
There has been an accelerating pattern of attacks this year linked to ISIS in Europe and beyond – from Turkey to Bangladesh, the United States to Indonesia.
Francis said: “Today, in schools they are teaching this to children – to children! – that everyone can choose their gender”. “It’s not right and it’s not true”, he replied.
The spiritual leader also blamed social injustice and global idolatry of money as some of the prime causes of terrorism. “The times we live in do not call for young “couch potatoes”, he said.
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The comments came at the end of Francis’ trip to Poland for World Youth Day, which was moderately contentious as well – many Polish bishops stand openly against the pope’s views, particularly his open-arms stance on refugees. You have erased the magnificence of creation and placed money at the center. That is a basic terrorism against all humanity.
