Pope Francis believes that the Third World War is already in full swing. It started in pieces, but now all the great powers are caught up in it, and the battleground is Ukraine, which has become an arms market and a venue for imperial interests everywhere.
The pontiff made these remarks in an interview broadcast Sunday by an Italian-language public TV channel in Switzerland on the occasion of his 10th anniversary as pontiff:
“For me, war is a crime, it is wrong. Consider that in a little over a hundred years, there have been three world wars: ’14-’18, ’39-’45 and this one, which is a world war. It started in bits and pieces and now nobody can say it’s not worldwide because the big powers are all involved. And the battlefield is Ukraine. Everybody is fighting there,” Pope Francis said in an interview with RSI.
Pope Francis says the war is also a testing ground for new weapons, from which the arms industry is profiting.
“That brings to mind the arms industry, too, doesn’t it? It’s a big industry. An expert told me: ‘If for one year they stopped producing weapons, the problem of hunger in the world would be solved.’ It’s a market. Wars are fought, old weapons are sold, new ones are tested… Two months ago, there was talk of a strange drone, they were testing… testing new weapons. They’re testing. That’s what wars are for, to test weapons,” the pontiff said.
He explained that the interests of war are primarily financial:
“It’s difficult because there are vested interests. Money really is the root of all evil. The devil loves to be around money. It has always struck me that Jesus says we cannot serve two masters. ‘Either you serve God…’ and I expected him to go on and say ‘or you serve the devil,’ but he doesn’t actually mention the devil. He says ‘Either you serve God or you serve money.’ That is striking. Jesus demonizes the false use of money. When people don’t know how to use money correctly – for education, for families, for helping others – and instead use it selfishly, it always ends badly. One ends up in a place without God, far from God – or with money as one’s God.
Asked specifically if even the current world conflict has such a motivation, Pope Francis answered unequivocally, “Yes, you see, there is always something to put (in the pocket – ed.)”
Pope Francis, who met Vladimir Putin several times before the conflict in Ukraine, was asked what he would say to the Russian leader today if he met him.
“I would speak to him as clearly as I speak in public. He is an educated man. I offered to go to him. On the second day of the war, I went to the Russian Embassy in the Holy See to say that I was willing to go to Moscow if Putin offered me a window to negotiate. (Russian Foreign Minister Sergey) Lavrov wrote to me saying: ‘Ok, thank you very much, but now is not the time,'” the pope responded.
“I know that Putin has heard this, he knows that I am available, but there are all the imperial interests, not only of the Russian Empire — which has been imperialist since the time of Peter II, Catherine II — but also of empires elsewhere. Empires exist. And it is typical of an empire to put nations second. But it is precisely the freedom of nations that creates the cosmos of nations, which is what the United Nations should be,” Pope Francis explained.
