Pope Francis on Sunday slammed the “immoral” use of force in Lebanon and Gaza amid ongoing Israeli strikes in both places.
“A country that acts this way with force, no matter the country, and that acts in such an excessive manner, (lends itself to) immoral actions,” said Francis when asked about the consequences of Israeli airstrikes on civilians aboard a flight back to Rome from Belgium.
“Defence must always be proportional to the attack. When this is not the case, a dominating tendency appears that goes beyond morality,” the 87-year-old pontiff said in Italian.
“Even in war there is a morality to defend. War is immoral, but the rules of war indicate a form of morality,” Francis said.
“But when you don’t do this … you see the bad blood of these things,” he said.
The death of Hassan Nasrallah has sent shockwaves throughout Lebanon and the Middle East, where he has been a key political and military figure for more than three decades.
Pope Francis said Friday that the Catholic Church must “seek forgiveness” over the “scourge” of child sexual abuse, during a visit to Belgium where the Church’s dark past looms large.
In a speech before political and civil society leaders that opened his three-day visit to the country, Francis denounced the “tragic instances of child abuse” as a stain on the Church’s legacy.
“It is our shame and our humiliation,” Francis told the gathering at the Laeken Palace royal residency.
“The Church must be ashamed and must seek forgiveness,” he said.
The 87-year-old pontiff is due to meet with a group of clerical sexual assault victims in Brussels in the afternoon, as part of a three-day stay in the European nation tarred by decades of scandals and cover-ups.
The meeting with around 15 victims, taking place at 6:30 pm (1630 GMT) at the Vatican’s diplomatic mission, was being held with the “utmost discretion”, according to the Belgian church.
It was arranged after a hard-hitting documentary last year put Belgium’s abuse scandal back on the front pages, prompting many new victims to come forward.
In an open letter published by Le Soir newspaper this month, some demanded the pope address paedophilia and set up a process for financial reparations.
“Words alone are not enough. Concrete measures must also be taken,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in a preamble to the pope’s speech.
The pontiff said the abuse scandal was “a scourge that the Church is addressing firmly and decisively by listening to and accompanying those who have been wounded, and by implementing a prevention programme throughout the world”.
Forced adoptions
Francis has made combating sexual assault in the Church a main mission of his papacy, and insisted on a “zero tolerance” policy in the wake of wide-reaching abuse scandals around the world.
During his speech, Francis also said he was “saddened” to learn about a forced adoptions scandal in Belgium that saw institutions run by nuns give up the babies of thousands of underage girls and unmarried women.
“We see how the bitter fruit of wrongdoing and criminality was mixed in with what was unfortunately the prevailing view in all parts of society at that time,” he said.
Belgium’s HLN news site estimates that up to 30,000 children were taken from their mothers in Belgium between 1945 and the 1980s.
Bishops in Belgium apologised in 2023 and requested an independent investigation after fresh testimonies emerged from women and people claiming to have been “sold” by the Catholic Church to their adoptive family.
Child sexual abuse and forced adoptions have “badly damaged trust” between the Church and society, De Croo said.
In a sign of the work yet to be done, the program of an open-air mass concluding Francis’s trip on Sunday had to be changed at the last minute after it emerged that the closing hymn was composed by a priest accused of sexual abuse.
The blunder prompted the head of the Belgian bishops’ conference, Archbishop Luc Terlinden, to admit that the Church needed to get better at keeping a tab on cases and perpetrators.
“This represents a great challenge for us, but we must think about it seriously with the help of lawyers and psychologists,” he told a local broadcaster. The composer, who died this month, reportedly settled a sexual abuse case in 2002.
On the wane
The Argentinian pope arrived in Belgium on Thursday evening after spending the day in neighbouring Luxembourg, where he made a plea for international diplomacy amid flaring conflicts across the globe.
He was welcomed by King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, who hosted him on Friday morning, and he will head on to meet with academics at the Catholic university of Leuven in Dutch-speaking Flanders — whose 600th anniversary next year is the official reason for Francis’s visit.
On Saturday, during what is his 46th trip abroad, Francis will meet the clergy at the vast Basilica of the Sacred Heart before holding discussions with students at Louvain-la-Neuve in French-speaking Wallonia, notably on climate issues.
The last papal visit to Brussels was in 1995, when John Paul II attended the beatification of Saint Damien, who dedicated his life to lepers.
Nearly 65 percent of Belgium’s population is Christian, including 58 percent who are Catholic, according to figures from Louvain university.
But their numbers are on the wane, reflecting a decline across Europe.
During his weekly general audience, Francis said he hoped his visit could be “the opportunity for a new impetus of faith”.
Interior Minister of Pakistan Mohsin Naqvi on June 4 met the head of the Catholic Church Pope Francis at the Vatican City during his European visit.
The minister received a warm welcome upon his arrival in Vatican City. The News reported that both leaders discussed ways to promote peace, brotherhood, interfaith harmony, and dialogue.
The Pope conveyed a message of peace to the people of Pakistan and also mentioned that the Prime Minister of Pakistan had sent him an invitation to visit the country, stating, “I will try to visit Pakistan”.
He also expressed concerns over the situation in Palestine and stressed that interfaith dialogue is essential for resolving issues.
Naqvi thanked the Pope for his stance on Palestine and praised his services in promoting global peace and harmony.
Pope Francis has deemed the violence stemming from the Israel and Hamas issue as “terrorism”.
“They suffer so much and I heard how they both suffer”, he said on Wednesday after meeting with Israeli families of captives held by Hamas and Palestinians who have family in Gaza
“Wars do this, but here we have gone beyond wars. This is not war, this is terrorism,” he added.
The head of the Catholic Church also called everyone to pray for peace so that both sides would “not go ahead with passions, which, in the end, kill everyone”.
Jewish groups reacts
Jewish groups, however, have criticised Pope Francis, demanding an explanation for accusing both Hamas and Israel of “terrorism.”
The Council of the Assembly of Italian Rabbis (ARI) issued a statement on Thursday, pointing at “Church leaders” for not condemning the Hamas attack and of “putting the aggressor and the attacked on the same plane in the name of a supposed impartiality.”
Similarly, American Jewish Committee (AJC) posted on X (formerly Twitter):
“Later in the day, he described the Israel-Hamas war as ‘beyond war’ as ‘terrorism.’ Hamas’ butchering and kidnapping of civilians is terrorism. Israel’s self-defense is not. Vatican, please clarify.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a US-based Jewish human rights organisation, also called on the pope “not to forget that all the loss and suffering since October 7th stems from the intolerable actions of Hamas.”
The statement added that the responsibility of all the suffering and loss of both the families of hostages and civilians in Gaza was “on the hands of the Hamas terrorists who, on October 7th, inflicted in the most brutal way, the worst mass murder of Jews since the defeat of Nazi Germany and World War II.”
The Jerusalem Post also reports that Italian rabbis also questioned the worth of “decades of Jewish-Christian dialog” if when Jews are attacked the Vatican responds with “diplomatic acrobatics.”
Nokia was confronted with a major challenge following the judicial decision in the lawsuit brought against HMD Global. To refresh your memory, a business called VoiceAgeEVS LLC sued the Finish giant in German courts for illegally deploying VoLTE technologies in Nokia handsets.
Nokia Mobile in response, filed a complaint, which was dismissed, resulting in the withdrawal of smartphones from some European countries. HMD takes intellectual property rights carefully, according to Nokia Mobile, and is ready to provide and acquire licenses on conditions that are fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory.
Pursuant to VoiceAgeEVS LLC’s discontent with HMD’s legal exercises, a partial ban on Nokia smartphones was imposed. Nokia has already taken measures to ensure that enhanced voice service (EVS) is no longer integrated into its devices sold in Germany, allowing for uninterrupted distribution. In Germany, Austria, and other European nations, phones like the Nokia XR20 and X20 are now eligible for sale in online stores.
Nokia C21 is the latest addition to the C-series family, as announced by HMD Global, the house of Nokia devices.
The new Nokia C21 adds even more value to the popular C-series by preserving the exceptional build quality, hallmark security assurances, and all-day battery life. It costs Rs17,000 and offers improved photos, privacy, and speed for a more enjoyable experience.
The head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, condemned domestic violence against women as ‘almost Satanic’ during a programme on the national TV channel of Italy named TG5 network on Sunday evening. It is one of the strongest languages he has ever used on any issue.
He was speaking to panelists belonging to difficult backgrounds, including a survivor of domestic abuse. In the programme, issues such as domestic violence, poverty, and economic impact on citizens due to the pandemic were discussed.
The Pope expressed his serious concern about a very high number of women who faced abuse and were beaten in their homes.
He said, “The problem is that, for me, it is almost satanic because it is taking advantage of a person who cannot defend herself, who can only [try to] block the blows.”
He added, “It is humiliating. Very humiliating.”
He spoke these words to the survivor of domestic abuse, Giovanna, who shared her experience of escaping from a violent home with her four children.
He added encouraging words by saying that women who suffered abuse do not lose their dignity.
He told Giovanna, “I see dignity in you because if you didn’t have dignity, you wouldn’t be here.”
While addressing the survivor, he urged to keep hope alive even during the pandemic.
He added a supporting comment, “You are giving an example of resistance, a lesson of resistance to calamities,” he said. “You are coming out better than before.”
