TURIN, Italy (Reuters) - People who manufacture weapons or invest in weapons industries are hypocrites if they call themselves Christian, Pope Francis said on Sunday.In the same speech, Pope Francis appears to call for acts of terrorism:
Francis issued his toughest condemnation to date of the weapons industry at a rally of thousands of young people at the end of the first day of his trip to the Italian city of Turin.
Francis also built on comments he has made in the past about events during the first and second world wars.
He spoke of the "tragedy of the Shoah," using the Hebrew term for the Holocaust.
"The great powers had the pictures of the railway lines that brought the trains to the concentration camps like Auschwitz to kill Jews, Christians, homosexuals, everybody. Why didn't they bomb (the railway lines)?"
Sanity in Italy:Roma, 19 October (AKI) - Italy's interior minister Roberto Maroni from the anti-immigrant Northern League party said he would not back a proposal to teach Islam in Italian schools to improve integration.
"The Northern League is absolutely against the proposal of an hour of Islamic religion in Italian schools," Maroni told the commericial TV programme Mattino 5.
The proposal was put forward by the deputy minister of economic development Adolfo Urso.
"While the hour of Catholic religion represents an entity, the Church, which has a hierarchy and contains clear, well defined values that can be conveyed, Islam on the other hand is a completely different case," Maroni said.
"The imam can freely interpret the Koran, there is not a series of tenets, there is not a clear message to convey...If the proposal served to improve integration, we would be all in agreement, but this is clearly the wrong way to do it," Maroni.
In September, the Vatican said that religion in Italian schools should have the status of a school subject. The Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education expressed the view in a letter sent to the Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI).
The head of the CEI, Mons. Angelo Bagnasco quickly rejected the idea of an 'Islam hour' in schools.
"The hour of Catholic religion teaching is based on the Concordat, because that is part of our history and culture. I do not think that the proposal to teach Islam for an hour has anything to do with this rational and renowned reason," said Bagnasco.
The 1929 Concordat (also known as the Lateran treaty) established Catholicism as the religion of Italy.
The CEI also said that the teaching of different religions could generate religious relativism and discouraged it because it could cause "confusion" or "damage".
Italy's public schools offer an optional "religion hour" in which students may study the Catholic religion or other faiths.
However, under a 2007 ruling, only students studying Catholicism were able to receive academic credit.
In mid-August, an Italian court ruling said that high school students may no longer receive academic credit for studying Catholicism, sparking criticism from conservative centre-right politicians, including the education minister, Mariastella Gelmini.
The Pope has condemned a "disgusting" taxpayer-funded exhibition in which visitors are urged to deface the Bible.Hat Tip: Vlad Tepes
Visitors were offered pens by gallery bosses so they could scrawl comments on the text - leading to a host of puerile and obscene remarks.
Pope Benedict XVI believes the stunt would not have been contemplated with a copy of the Koran.
His anger over the show, organised by council-funded arts body Culture and Sport Glasgow, was expressed by a senior Vatican priest.
The adviser to the Pope said: "It is disgusting and offensive. They would not think of doing it to the Koran."
Public complaints about the exhibit at the prestigious Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow have forced organisers to put the vandalised Bible on show in a locked case, while still allowing visitors to write comments on blank sheets of paper.
The Made In God's Image exhibit is the work of Glasgow artist Anthony Schrag.
He wanted gays and transsexuals who felt left out of religion to 'write their way back in' to the holy text.
Mr Schrag worked with members of the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in Edinburgh on the project.
But MCC minister Jane Clarke said: "I had hoped people would show respect for the Bible. I am saddened some have chosen to write offensive messages."
