Pope Francis told the Russian Orthodox hierarchy and other faith leaders Tuesday that religion must never be used to justify the “evil” of war and that God must never “be held hostage to the human thirst for power.”
Against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Francis opened an interfaith conference in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan by challenging delegations to unite in condemning war. He cited a Kazakh poet in warning that “he who permits evil and does not oppose it cannot be regarded as a true believer. At best he is a half-hearted believer.”
