NUR-SULTAN, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Pope Francis said on Wednesday that God does not lead religions to war, an implicit criticism of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who supports the invasion of Ukraine and has boycotted a conference of religious leaders. . On his second day in Kazakhstan, Francis spoke at the Seventh Conference of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, a meeting that brings together Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and other faiths. Kirill was going to participate, but withdrew. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) sent a delegation led by its number two, Metropolitan Antony, who later met briefly with the pope. “God is peace. He always leads us to the path of peace, never to war,” Francis said, speaking at a huge round table in the Palace of Independence, a huge modern structure of steel and glass in the capital of the former Soviet republic. “So let us commit ourselves even more to insisting on the need to resolve conflicts not by the vague means of power, by weapons and threats, but by the only means blessed by heaven and worthy of man: meeting, dialogue and patient negotiations,” he he said. The pope, who earlier this year said Cyril could not be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “altar boy”, told the conference: “The sanctuary must never be a support for power, nor power a support for the Holy!”. Cyril has enthusiastically backed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which the patriarch sees as a bulwark against a West he calls decadent. read more
POPE-PATRIARCH MEETING STILL POSSIBLE
His stance caused a rift with the Vatican and sparked an internal revolt that led to some local Orthodox Churches severing ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. read more Pope Francis attends the VII Conference of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions at the Palace of Independence in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, September 14, 2022. REUTERS/Remo Casilli read more Metropolitan Antonio told reporters his meeting with the Pope was “very cordial” but said Francis’ “altar” remark about Cyril was “not helpful for Christian unity” and had surprised the Russian Orthodox Church. Anthony said the Pope told him he wanted to have a second meeting with Cyril. The first was in Cuba in 2016. Francis also said that while violence in the name of God has never been justified, the “viruses” of hatred and terrorism will not be eradicated without first eradicating injustice and poverty. He said religious freedom was essential for peaceful coexistence in any society and no denomination had the right to force others to convert. “It is time to realize that fundamentalism contaminates and corrupts every faith,” he said. “Let us free ourselves from these reductive and destructive concepts that insult the name of God with cruelty, extremism and forms of fundamentalism and desecrate it with hatred, fanaticism and terrorism, distorting the image of man as well.” But simply condemning extremism was not enough. “As long as inequality and injustice continue to proliferate, there will be no end to viruses even worse than COVID: the viruses of hate, violence and terrorism,” he said. Francis, who wrote a landmark document in 2015 on the need to protect the environment, said religious leaders must be at the forefront of drawing attention to the dangers of climate change and extreme weather, particularly its effects on poor and vulnerable of society. About 70% of Kazakhs are Muslim and about 26% Orthodox Christian. There are only about 125,000 Catholics among the 19 million population of the vast Central Asian country. Francis will say Mass for the tiny Catholic community on Wednesday evening. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Report by Philip Pullella. Editing by Michael Perry and Alex Richardson Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
