Pope, on Good Friday, blasts indifference to suffering. [View all]

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Source: La Prensa

Pope Francis presided Friday over the Way of the Cross rite in Rome's Coliseum, where he invoked the plight of refugees and victims and denounced terrorists, pedophile priests and arms merchants, among others.

"O Cross of Christ, today we see you in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas which have become insatiable cemeteries, reflections of our indifferent and anesthetized conscience," he said, referring to refugees from Middle Eastern wars who die trying to reach Europe.

The crucifix, he told the tens of thousands in the Coliseum, represents those who suffer and those who try to relieve suffering, but also the "doctors of death" who cause violence and other woes.

Francis, 79, likewise had harsh words for some within the Catholic Church, excoriating pedophile priests as "unfaithful ministers who, instead of stripping themselves of their own vain ambitions, divest even the innocent of their dignity."

Turning to the persecution of Middle Eastern Christians by Islamic militants, the Argentine pontiff spoke of "our sisters and brothers killed, burned alive, throats slit and decapitated by barbarous blades amid cowardly silence."

The pope decried "terrorist acts committed by followers of some religions which profane the name of God and which use the holy name to justify their unprecedented violence."

Francis echoed his own comments earlier this week following the deadly terror attacks in Brussels when he blasted "arms dealers who feed the cauldron of war with the innocent blood of our brothers and sisters."

Read more: http://www.laprensasa.com/309_america-in-english/3710485_pope-on-good-friday-blasts-indifference-to-suffering.html