Pope Francis: Weapons Manufacturers, Don’t Call Yourselves Christians
[guest post by Dana]
During a meeting with young people on Sunday, Pope Francis condemned those who manufacture weapons as well as those who invest in the weapons industry:
“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 criticized those who invest in weapons industries, saying “duplicity is the currency of today … they say one thing and do another.”
A quick perusal of Wikipedia confirms that the Papal Swiss Guard aren’t carrying slingshots to protect the Pontiff:
The Swiss Guard use traditional weapons, such as a sword and a halberd, as well as modern weapons such as the SIG P220 and Glock 19 pistols, the Steyr TMP machine pistol and submachine guns like the Heckler & Koch MP5A3.
Pope Francis also mentioned the Holocaust and wondered why weapons were not used to stop the trains that took prisoners to the camps and their eventual deaths:
“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)?”
–Dana