Vatican City, Jun 5, 2017 / 07:42 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has been a consistent and vocal personality in condemning the arms trade and urging world leaders to do the same, and he raised his voice on the issue again in his latest prayer video.
Published June 2, the video begins showing two world leaders sitting at a table to sign a join-accord, exchanging copies of the agreement to sign while Pope Francis says that “it’s an absurd contradiction to speak of peace, to negotiate peace, and at the same time promote or permit the arms trade.”
“Is this war or that war really a war to solve problems, or is it a commercial war for selling weapons in illegal trade, and so that the merchants of death get rich?” he asks, as images of explosions and gunfire interchange with frames of the leaders shaking hands dripping with blood.
“Let us put an end to this situation,” he said. “Let us pray all together that national leaders may firmly commit themselves to ending the arms trade which victimizes so many innocent people.”
The topic is one Pope Francis has spoken out about since the beginning of his pontificate, and which he continues to bring up in any relevant occasion.
In fact, the first line of the video is taken almost verbatim from the Pope’s May 2014 speech to seven new ambassadors to the Holy See who presented him with their credentials.
In the speech, Francis spoke about peace, saying “everyone talks about peace (and) everyone claims to want it, (but) the proliferation of weapons of every type leads in the opposite direction.”
He said the arms trade both complicates and distances us from finding solutions to conflicts, especially because “it takes place to a great extent outside the boundaries of the law,” and urged the new ambassadors to work toward eradicating the proliferation of weapons.
The Pope was also outspoken about the topic during his September 2015 speech to the U.S. Congress, in which he emphasized that Christians must ask “why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society?”
“Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade,” he said.
Last July, in a video message promoting peace in Syria, he lamented that “while the people suffer, incredible quantities of money are being spent to supply weapons to fighters.”
Some of the arms suppliers “are also among those that talk of peace,” he said. “How can you believe in someone who caresses you with the right hand and strikes you with the left hand?”
In his Jan. 22 , 2017, speech to the Diplomatic Corps Accredited to the Holy See, he said part of the peace-building process means eradicating the causes of violence and injustice, one of which is the “deplorable arms trade and the never-ending race to create and spread ever more sophisticated weaponry,” particularly nuclear weapons.
Coincidentally, the Pope’s prayer video was published just days before six countries decided to cut diplomatic ties with the Middle-Eastern country of Qatar over it’s alleged support or terrorism.
On Monday it was announced that Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Libya have severed diplomatic relations with Qatar over the terrorism problem, giving Qatari ambassadors just a few days to leave their countries.
The move was made over allegations that Qatar is backing Islamist groups such as ISIS and AL-Qaeda, providing financial support despite recently joining the U.S.-led coalition against IS. Part of the decision also arose from concern that Qatar is getting too cozy with Iran, the growing regional rival of Saudi Arabia and which presents a significant nuclear threat.
What progress will actually come from the decision to cut ties is unknown, especially since Saudi Arabia itself has also been accused by many neighboring countries of financially supporting ISIS. So while the long-term effects of the decision remain to be seen, the move seems to make Francis’ prayer intention all the more timely.
His prayer videos first launched during the Jubilee of Mercy and are part of an initiative of the Jesuit-run global prayer network Apostleship of Prayer. They are filmed in collaboration with the Vatican Television Center and the Argentinian marketing association La Machi.
The Apostleship of Prayer, which produces the monthly videos on the Pope’s intentions, was founded by Jesuit seminarians in France in 1884 to encourage Christians to serve God and others through prayer, particularly for the needs of the Church.
Since the late 1800s, the organization has received a monthly, “universal” intention from the Pope. In 1929, an additional missionary intention was added by the Holy Father, aimed at the faithful in particular.
Starting in January, rather than including a missionary intention, Pope Francis has elected to have only one prepared prayer intention – the universal intention featured in the prayer video – and will add a second intention focused on an urgent or immediate need if one arises.
The prayer intentions typically highlight issues of importance not only for Pope Francis, but for the world, such as families, the environment, the poor and homeless, Christians who are persecuted, youth, women and a swath of other relevant topics in the world today.
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The Sermon on the Mount was a message to mankind. Most of the people in that crowd would have been Jews. Though some might have been people from other groups and religions. There were no baptized Christians there but the teaching applies to all of us.
Then why do you suppose Francis is so hostile to the moral particulars of the Sermon on the Mount and so consistently insulting towards those who affirm them?
The only thoughts left-wingers have to offer humanity are cheap sentimentalities that avoid the sort of honest specifics that might require that they come to terms with their very real crimes against humanity when they seek to actually define and implement policies of impoverishing and murdering tyrannical governance “for the people.”
What you say applies equally to left-wingers and the right-wingers. Both groups seek to implement evil policies to which you refer. Your ignorance or sheer hatred of Pope Francis is once again on display.
Following the Napoleonic Wars, and reflecting on the edifice of Prince Metternich (and of all modern politics), the scholar and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote:
“[it] was the redefinition of the classic theological version of humility, ‘Thy will be done,’ with reason taking the place of God. It represented an effort to deal with the most fundamental problem of politics, which is NOT the control of wickedness but the limitation of righteousness . . . that order once shattered can be restored only by the experience of chaos.”
Pope St. John Paul II said something similar, counseling that the positive Sermon on the Mount does NOT replace prohibitions and the Commandments:
“…the commandment of love of God and neighbor does not have in its dynamic any higher limit, but it does have a lower limit, beneath which the commandment is broken” (Veritatis Splendor, 1993, n. 52).
This complete picture questions the premise, to what extend do we really worship the same God? Yes, universal human nature is not totally depraved and, yes, the working of grace is a mystery fully known but to God. So, an appeal to “fraternity” is not to be rejected, but as a possible ideology, it also and truly is not enough.
Teaching ambiguity or lacking charity for the word of God suggests a misunderstanding of Scripture and a rejection of the Holy Spirit’s lights. From Scripture, we infer that God favors certain men. Men of today do well to conform our minds to God’s.
1)Cain and Abel were brothers. God accepted Abel’s sacrifice but rejected Cain’s.
2) Joseph’s many brothers hated Joseph because their father favored him.
3) Solomon’s lust overruled his wisdom when he allowed his wives to have altars built in Jerusalem for worship of pagan gods. Solomon then lost God’s favor. (1 Kings 11:7–8).
Many other scripture stories reveal the truth that God favors those who obey and please Him. The first three of the Ten Commandments address man’s obligation to God; only then are obligations to man commanded.
Jesus also taught the first and greatest commandment as love of God. Only then did He teach that the second commandment was ‘like’ the first. He did not say the next ‘equaled’ the first.
Jesus spoke of obedience to God’s commandments many times, asserting obedience as synonymous with love of God. Obedient love of God is man’s first priority. Love of fellow men should be ordered to love of God. We who have been gifted understanding and prudence know that justice and charity are due first to God, next to fellow believers, and last to those who reject, deny, persecute, and act to demonstrate hate for God and his followers.
Teaching ambiguity and lacking charity for the word of God suggests a misunderstanding of Scripture and a rejection of light the Holy Spirit yearns to give.