Pope Leo XIV denounced this Thursday that the world is being destroyed by a few tyrants and stands firm thanks to a great multitude of supportive brothers and sisters, during an interreligious meeting for peace held at the Catedral de San José de Bamenda, in the northwest of Cameroon.
The pontiff delivered the speech in a region that has been engulfed in civil war for a decade, as part of his apostolic tour of Africa that includes Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea.
León XIV harshly criticized the "lords of war", whom he accused of feigning ignorance about the consequences of their actions: "They pretend not to know that it only takes a moment to destroy, but often not a lifetime to rebuild. They disguise their inability to see that it requires billions of dollars to kill and devastate, while the necessary resources to heal, educate, and uplift are not found."
He also issued a spiritual warning against those who exploit faith: "Woe to those who bend religions and the very name of God to their own military, economic, and political interests, dragging what is holy down to the most sordid and sinister!"
The Pope also denounced those who plunder natural resources and invest the profits in weapons, describing it as a "spiral of endless destabilization and death", and labeled this reality as "an upside-down world, a distortion of God's creation that every righteous conscience must denounce and reject."
Bamenda is the capital of the Northwest region of Cameroon and the epicenter of the Anglophone separatist conflict that erupted in 2016 when protests by lawyers and teachers against the imposition of French led to a civil war that has resulted in nearly 6,500 dead and over 500,000 displaced.
According to the UN, 1.8 million of the four million inhabitants of the English-speaking regions need humanitarian assistance, and about 250,000 children are affected by the closure of schools due to the conflict.
As a gesture of goodwill for the papal visit, the Anglophone separatists announced a temporary ceasefire of three days, and the Cameroonian authorities reopened the Bamenda airport after six years of closure.
In contrast to the violence that plagues the region, the pope praised the interreligious movement created by Muslims and Christians in Bamenda: "How many places on earth I wish would see the same happen! Blessed are the peacemakers!"
The speech comes amid escalating tensions between the Vatican and the White House. Last Sunday, Donald Trump attacked the pope on his social media, labeling him weak against crime and terrible in foreign policy, and even stated: "If I were not in the White House, Leon would not be in the Vatican."
The pontiff responded from the papal plane on Monday, at the beginning of his trip to Algeria: I have no fear of the Trump administration, and he reiterated that he will continue "to speak boldly about the message of the Gospel."
This Wednesday, Trump published a new message asking someone to inform Pope Leo XIV about Iran, also extending his criticisms to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for defending the pontiff.
The Supreme Pontiff, for his part, concluded his speech at the cathedral with a direct appeal to the faithful and clergy present: "Let us work together for peace!"
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