Leo
“Woe to those who bend religions and the very name of God to their own military, economic and political interests, dragging what is holy into the most sordid and dark!” lamented the pontiff at the meeting held at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Bamenda.
Leo
According to the UN, 1.8 of the 4 million inhabitants of English-speaking regions need humanitarian aid, while some 250,000 children are affected by school closures due to the conflict.
The American pontiff praised the fact that Muslims and Christians had created a peace movement in Bamenda and exclaimed: “In how many places on earth I would like the same thing to happen! Blessed are those who work for peace!
He expressed his gratitude to all those people, particularly women, lay and religious, who care for people traumatized by violence in this region.
And in this sense he added: «Warlords pretend not to know that a moment is enough to destroy, but that often a life is not enough to rebuild. They pretend not to see that billions of dollars are needed to kill and devastate, and that the necessary resources are not found to heal, educate and uplift.
Furthermore, the Pope charged against “those who plunder the earth’s resources” and “who usually invest a large part of the profits in weapons, in a spiral of destabilization and endless death.”
And he criticized that “the world is being destroyed by a few tyrants and is kept standing thanks to an immensity of brothers and sisters in solidarity.”
Although Cameroon is rich in resources such as oil, gas or minerals, 26.7% of the population is in poverty, according to the World Bank (WB).
“This is a world turned upside down, a distortion of God’s creation that every right conscience must denounce and repudiate,” Leo XIV added.
The Pope is traveling through the African continent, the first stop of which was Algeria and which, after Cameroon, will also take him to Angola and Equatorial Guinea.
The beginning of the trip has been marked by the verbal attacks of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, against the pope, whom he called “weak against crime” and “terrible in foreign policy”, for his calls for peace. Robert Prevost responded that he is not afraid of him and that he will continue to raise his voice to build peace.
Today he reiterated this message to the religious and faithful who filled the Cathedral of San José: “Let’s work together for peace!”
Trump defends that he “has the right” to disagree with the pope
US President Donald Trump defended this Thursday that he “has the right” to disagree with Pope Leo XIV, whom he accuses of being in favor of Iran having a nuclear weapon after days of public disagreements with the pontiff over his stance against war.
«I have no disagreement with the fact that the pope can say what he wants – and I want him to say what he wants – but I can disagree with him. The pope made a statement. He says Iran may have a nuclear weapon. “I say Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters before traveling to Las Vegas.
«The pope has to understand it. Iran has killed more than 42,000 people in recent months. They were totally unarmed protesters. He has to understand that this is the real world. “It’s a cruel world,” he added.
Trump repeated on several occasions the sympathy that, according to him, he has for the pontiff’s brother, Louis Prevost, whom he considers a supporter of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement.
«I’m sure the Pope is a great guy too. I have not met him, but I disagree with him,” said the Republican.
