PA Bill Number: SR77
Title: A Concurrent Resolution petitioning the Congress of the United States to call a Convention for proposing amendments pursuant to Article V of the ...
Description: A Concurrent Resolution petitioning the Congress of the United States to call a Convention for proposing amendments pursuant to Article V of the ...
Last Action: Reported as committed
Last Action Date: Apr 30, 2024
Pope says weapon makers can't call themselves Christian :: 06/22/2015
Pope Francis on Sunday issued a harsh condemnation of the weapons industry and the lack of effort by “great powers” in the face of evil.
The criticisms came at a rally of thousands of young people on the first day of his trip to Turin, Italy. Along with a prepared statement, Francis’s impromptu talk covered a slew of issues like war, trust and politics, Reuters reported.
Putting his comments in context, Francis referenced such as concentration camps containing “Jews, Christians, homosexuals, everybody” during World War II, and “the great tragedy of Armenia” in which 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by Turkey about 100 years ago.
“But where were the great powers then? They were looking the other way,” the pope said, the Associated Press reported.
“It makes me think of … people, managers, businessmen who call themselves Christian and they manufacture weapons. That leads to a bit a distrust, doesn’t it?” he said to applause.
He also criticized those who invest in weapons industries, saying “duplicity is the currency of today … they say one thing and do another.”
From Reuters:
Pope says weapons manufacturers can't call themselves Christian
Thomson Reuters Foundation
By Philip Pullella
TURIN, Italy, June 21 (Reuters) - People who manufacture weapons or invest in weapons industries are hypocrites if they call themselves Christian, Pope Francis said on Sunday.
Francis issued his toughest condemnation to date of the weapons industry at a rally of thousands of young people at the end of the first day of his trip to the Italian city of Turin.
"If you trust only men you have lost," he told the young people in a long, rambling talk about war, trust and politics after putting aside his prepared address.
"It makes me think of ... people, managers, businessmen who call themselves Christian and they manufacture weapons. That leads to a bit a distrust, doesn't it?" he said to applause.
He also criticised those who invest in weapons industries, saying "duplicity is the currency of today ... they say one thing and do another."
Francis also built on comments he has made in the past about events during the first and second world wars.
He spoke of the "tragedy of the Shoah," using the Hebrew term for the Holocaust.
"The great powers had the pictures of the railway lines that brought the trains to the concentration camps like Auschwitz to kill Jews, Christians, homosexuals, everybody. Why didn't they bomb (the railway lines)?"
Discussing World War One, he spoke of "the great tragedy of Armenia" but did not use the word "genocide".
Francis sparked a diplomatic row in April calling the massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians 100 years ago "the first genocide of the 20th century," prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador to the Vatican.
http://www.trust.org/item/20150621183811-et1rd
http://www.guns.com/2015/06/22/pope-says-weapon-makers-cant-call-themselves-christian/
