Pope Francis: “You cannot remain silent when terrorism abuses religion”

Pope Francis said on Saturday that believers “cannot be silent when terrorism abuses religion”, during a meeting with the representatives of other religions present in Iraq which took place in the Plain of Ur and in which he remembered the atrocities committed against minorities such as the Yazidis.

The Pope visited this Saturday in Ur of the Chaldeans, in southern Iraq, a place linked to the tradition of the three monotheistic religions which indicate this point of Mesopotamia as the birth of their prophet Abraham.

In this biblical city and in front of the so-called House of Abraham and the monumental Ziggurat, imposing Sumerian pyramidal sanctuary, Francis assured that “The most blasphemous offense is to profane the name of God by hating one’s brother”.

“Hostility, extremism and violence were not born out of a religious spirit; these are betrayals of religion “Francisco exclaimed.

He added that believers “They cannot be silent when terrorism abuses religion”. “It is up to us to clearly resolve the misunderstandings,” he said.

Surrounded by representatives of the religions that make up this mosaic of civilizations that is Iraq, Sunnis, Shiites, Zoroastrians and Yazidis, but not Jews, the pope recalled the ethnic and religious persecution suffered by many communities during the 2014 invasion by Islamic State terrorists (NO).

And in particular, as he did in his speech to the authorities, he reminded the Yazidi community, mourned the deaths of many men and saw thousands of women, youth and children abducted, sold into slaves and subjected to physical violence and forced conversions“.

He asked to pray for “all those who have suffered such suffering and for those who are still missing and kidnapped, so that they will return home soon”.

More than 2,800 Yazidis are still missing, mostly women and children, according to the latest official data.

That religious freedom be respected

Sitting in the center of a lodge and surrounded by representatives of different faiths, the Pope too asked for prayers that everywhere “freedom of conscience and religious freedom be respected, which are fundamental rights, because they make man free to contemplate the sky for which he was created”.

He stressed that in the face of the terrorism which entered the north of the country, in reference to the jihadists of the IS, and which brutally destroyed part of the wonderful Iraqi heritage, “there is young Muslim volunteers from Mosul who have helped rebuild churches and monasteries, building fraternal friendships on the rubble of hatred, and Christians and Muslims who today together restore mosques and churches ”.

Faced with “the storms we are going through”, Francisco assured that “isolation will not save us, the race to strengthen armaments and build walls will not save uson the contrary, it will make us more and more distant and irritated ”.

The way is to pray “together in the same direction”.

Religions must work harder to eliminate injustices

For Francisco, It is the religions which must urge most strongly “the leaders of the nations so that the increasing proliferation of weapons gives way to the distribution of food for all” and “to make heard the cry of the oppressed and rejected of the planet; too many people lack bread, medicine, education, rights and dignity ”.

“It is to us that the obscure maneuvers that revolve around money are revealed and strongly demand that it not always and only serve to feed the unbridled ambitions of a few,” he concluded.

Special mention for “martyred Syria”.

The Pope focused on Syria, where the war that began 10 years ago after a popular revolt has left more than 387,000 dead.

“Peace does not require winners or losers, but brothers and sisters who, despite the misunderstandings and wounds of the past, move from conflict to unity”said the Pope. “Let us ask it in prayer for the whole of the Middle East, I am thinking in particular of neighboring and martyred Syria,” he added.

(With information from EFE and AFP)

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