In a message to the Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, taking place in Vienna, Pope Francis said: “The humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons are predictable and planetary.

“While the focus is often placed on nuclear weapons’ potential for mass killing, more attention must be given to the ‘unnecessary suffering’ brought on by their use.

“Nuclear deterrence and the threat of mutually assured destruction cannot be the basis for an ethics of fraternity and peaceful coexistence among peoples and states. The youth of today and tomorrow deserve far more.

“Spending on nuclear weapons squanders the wealth of nations. To prioritise such spending is a mistake and a misallocation of resources which would be far better invested in the areas of integral human development, education, health and the fight against extreme poverty. When these resources are squandered, the poor and the weak living on the margins of society pay the price.”

Progress in talks with Muslim leaders

Progress in the relationship of Catholics and Muslims was registered during the 3rd Catholic-Muslim Summit held recently at the Vatican. This is the comment Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, gave to Vatican Radio at the conclusion of the summit.

Tauran said that the participation of Shi’ite Muslims in the talks was very important. A very significant step was the acceptance by Muslim scholars of “the necessity of putting the sacred Scriptures in the framework of history”.

This was a very important step, as in the Islamic tradition it is believed that the Qu’ran must be seen as an authoritative text that stands alone, and cannot be subjected to historical study.

Cardinal Tauran said the willingness to consider the historic context is “the beginning of hermeneutics” and “very new and very courageous, coming from Shia from Iran.”

‘Accounts not corrupt’

The multi-million bonanza that Cardinal George Pell, the head of the Secretariat for the Economy, had spoken of recently cannot in any way be described as an example of illegal or corrupt dealings. Pell had said that his office had found many accounts that were not included in the Vatican’s official budget sheet.

But Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, said that the off-budget expenses were incurred by various Vatican agencies that had legitimately handled their own spending.

Father Lombardi said that the Secretariat for the Economy had discovered the off-budget expenses during a thorough review, with which all Vatican agencies cooperated. That study, he argued, was a “sign and fruit of constructive cooperation among the different institutions of the Vatican.”

Patriarch raps West

Patriarch Joseph III Younan of Antioch, leader of the Syriac Catholic Church, has accused Western governments of neglecting the Christian refugees of Iraq who “have neither the numbers nor the riches to make them attractive.” He expressed his dismay during an interview with Aid to the Church in Need.

“We are refugees in our own country,” the Syriac Patriarch said. Morale is low, he said, among the Christians who have been driven from their homes and now face the likelihood that they will never be able to return. He estimated that 140,000 Christians are now displaced and said that Church in Iraq does not have the means to care for their needs in terms of food, housing, medical care, and education.

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)