Pope Francis returned to this subject three times during his visit to Sarajevo on 6 June, elaborating on statements previously made.
Pope Francis talked about the issue of arms trafficking fomenting the war three times during his visit to Sarajevo on Saturday, June 6. His words – contained both in the written text of his homily and in two more speeches he gave off the cuff – elaborate on statements he had made before.
Referring to peace as “God’s plan”, speaking from Sarajevo, a city that is a symbol of co-existence between different religions and ethnicities but also the scene of fratricidal wars that saw Christians persecuting other Christians, Christians persecuting Muslims and Muslims persecuting Christians, the Pope said:
“Even in our time, the desire for peace and the commitment to build peace collide against the reality of many armed conflicts presently affecting our world. They are a kind of third world war being fought piecemeal and, in the context of global communications, we sense an atmosphere of war.” His words about the third world war fought piecemeal are not new. Francis spoke about this for the first time last summer, on his journey back from Korea.
“Some,” Francis added in his homily for the mass celebrated in Sarajevo’s stadium, “wish to incite and foment this atmosphere deliberately, mainly those who want conflict between different cultures and societies, and those who speculate on wars for the purpose of selling arms.” Francis’ phrase, “those who want conflict”, seems to be a reference not only to the radical Islamic fanaticism currently being witnessed in the Middle East, but also those who foment this clash, attempting to cover economic interests with ideological contents. Those who “speculate” on war to sell arms.
At the end of his eleven-hour visit to the Bosnian capital, Francis responded to some questions put to him by youngsters during the meeting held at the “John Paul II” diocesan youth centre: “Everyone speaks of peace”, said the Holy Father. “Some world leaders speak of peace, and say beautiful things about peace, but behind it all they still sell weapons. From you, I expect honesty, coherence between what you think, what you feel and what you do: these three things together. The contrary is called hypocrisy.” The key point Francis wished to make here was that the powerful are hypocritical when they speak about peace but in reality do not build peace. They speculate about the war, selling arms under the counter. These words beg the question of how IS militants, for example, managed to get hold of the quantity of weapons that allowed them to take power over such a vast area. Where did these come from? Which borders did they cross? Who sold them or had them sent over and why? These questions need to be addressed to various countries in the area, possible allies of the West.
Finally, journalists on board the papal flight from Sarajevo to Rome on the evening of Saturday 6 June, asked the Pope a question on the subject too: “Yes, there is always hypocrisy and this is why I said that simply talking about peace is not enough, you have to make peace. Those who simply talk about peace but do not make peace, contradict themselves. Those who talk about peace but foster war, through the sale of arms for example, are hypocrites. It’s that simple…”
Francis had spoken about the issue in the past, for example in an interview with journalist Henrique Cymerman for Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia published on 12 June 2014: “We are discarding an entire generation to maintain an economic system that no longer holds, a system which, in order to survive, must fight wars, as great empires have always done. Since we cannot have a third world war, we fight regional wars. What does this mean? It means that they manufacture and sell weapons, and so the budgets of the idolatrous economies, the major worldwide economies that sacrifice man at the feet of the idol of money, obviously, are healed.” Words which led The Economist to accuse the Pope of being a follower of Lenin.
