Pope: Arms investors 'hypocrites if they call themselves Christians'
Head of the Catholic Church makes his toughest comments yet on weapons industry in speech to crowd of thousands in Turin, Italy
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Pope has criticised weapons manufacturers and arms industry investors, saying they are hypocrites if they call themselves Christians.
Pope Francis made his comments to a crowd 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 crowd, having set 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 [of] distrust, doesn't it?"
He also criticised those who invest in weapons industries, saying "duplicity is the currency of today ... they say one thing and do another".
This is the head of the Catholic Church's strongest condemnation of the weapons industry to date.
Pope Francis has enjoyed a week of intense media coverage having released his encyclical on climate change, criticised by some US Catholic politicians and others for mixing religion and politics.
In his Turin speech the Pope also built on comments he has made in the past about events during the First and Second World Wars, speaking of the "tragedy of the Shoah", the Hebrew term for the Holocaust.
Also in reference to the first world war he spoke of "the great tragedy of Armenia", but did not use the word "genocide".
In April he sparked a diplomatic row with Turkey after he called the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians in the wake of the First World War "the first genocide of the 20th century".
(Additional reporting by Reuters)
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments