Pope Francis: World is at war, but not a war of religions

Pope Francis said on Wednesday the world was at war but argued that religion was not the cause, as he arrived in Poland a day after jihadists murdered a Catholic priest in France.

“We must not be afraid to say the truth The word we hear a lot is insecurity, but the real word is war. The world has been in a fragmented war for some time the world is at war because it has lost peace,” the pontiff told journalists aboard a flight from the Rome to Krakow.

“When I speak of war I speak of wars over interests, money, resources, not religion. All religions want peace, it’s the others who want war.”

The brutal killing of the elderly priest during mass in France on Tuesday, in an attack claimed by ISIS, has cast a shadow over Pope Francis’ trip and dampened turnout for the World Youth Day festival, a week-long faith extravaganza dubbed “the Catholic Woodstock”.

The French priest’s murder has also complicated Francis’ aim to champion migrants. As Europe struggles to cope with the worst migrant crisis since World War II, Pope Francis has repeatedly called on officials to protect the victims of persecution, while seeking to set an example by sheltering Syrian Muslim families in Rome. But Poland has refused to take part in an EU deal to share the burden of migrants arriving in Italy and Greece by boat.

At the heart of the visit will be a meeting with Holocaust survivors at the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz, where Francis will pray for the camp’s 1.1 million mostly Jewish victims, before the five-day trip winds up with the customary papal vigil and mass.