By Meleasie Goviro – EMTV International
Pope Francis, following the harrowing Brussels bomb attacks, has condemned the use of religion to justify acts of terrorism.
The Pope says followers of religions that encourage it made a mockery of God’s name.
An emotional Pope Francis delivered this message at Friday’s traditional annual Way of the Cross candlelight procession, around Rome’s Colosseum.
“O Cross of Christ, today too we see you in expressions of fundamentalism and in 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.”
The Pope also made reference to beheading and burning of Christians in the Middle East, and to those forced to leave their homes.
“O Cross of Christ, today too we see you raised up in our sisters and brothers killed, burned alive, throats slit and decapitated by barbarous blades amid cowardly silence. O Cross of Christ, today too we see you in the faces of children, of women and people, worn out and fearful, who flee from war and violence and who often only find death and many Pilates who wash their hands.”
At the Good Friday service led by Pope Francis himself, Vatican’s official preacher urged people and nations not to seek revenge and “overcome evil with good“.
“The hate and the brutality of the terrorist attacks this week in Brussels help us to understand the divine power of Christ’s last words ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’. No matter how far the hate of human beings can go, the love of God always has been, and will be, greater. In these current circumstances Paul’s exhortation is addressed to us: ‘Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good’.”
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