THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM BELGIUM (CNS): Using disproportionate force after being attacked is immoral, Pope Francis said on the papal plane returning to Rome from Belgium on September 29.
During a brief question-and-answer period with reporters, the pope was asked specifically whether he thought Israel had gone too far in its most recent strike on Lebanon.
He said that there are rules, even in war, that should be followed and when those rules are not adhered to you can see, “as we say in Argentina, the ‘bad blood’” or bad intentions behind the actions.
The reported who asked “Has Israel perhaps gone too far in Lebanon and Gaza?” prefaced the question by saying Israel, in its targeted strike assassinating Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had dropped tons of explosives on Lebanon, resulting in many casualties and displacing hundreds of people, which prompted the pope to put his hand to his face in a show of despair.
Pope Francis said he was not sure about what really happened in Lebanon, but he said a nation’s “defense must always be proportionate to the attack.”
The pope said, “When there is something disproportionate, one shows a tendency to dominate which goes beyond what is moral.”
Defensive actions that are so “excessive,” he said, “are immoral actions.”
When there is something disproportionate, one shows a tendency to dominate which goes beyond what is moral
Pope Francis
The pope also mentioned that he speaks every day by phone with the people who have been sheltering in Gaza’s Catholic church, “and they tell me about the things that are happening, even the cruelty that happens there.”
Earlier, speaking after his Mass that concluded his visit to Belgium, Pope Francis appealed to all parties involved in the ongoing war in the Middle East “to cease fire immediately in Lebanon, in Gaza, in the rest of Palestine, and in Israel,” adding that, “Hostages must be released, and humanitarian aid must be allowed.”
Replying to a question about how to balance the rights of women and the right to life, the pope said, “Women have the right to life: to her life and her children’s lives.”
He stressed, “Abortion is homicide,” and doctors who perform abortions “are hitmen. And there can be no debate about this.”
He clarified, “Contraceptive methods are something else. Don’t mix them up. I am talking about abortion,” he said.
We must take care of people who have been abused and punish the abusers…
Pope Francis
Asked about what he will do with the requests for action he received from victims of clergy abuse he met with in Brussels on September 27, Pope Francis said the Church has “a responsibility to help those abused and to take care of them” and to punish the perpetrators.
The pope said, “We must take care of people who have been abused and punish the abusers, because abuse is not a sin of today that perhaps tomorrow will not exist. It’s a trend; it’s a psychiatric illness, and for this reason, we must offer them treatment and monitor them.”
Perpetrators cannot be left “free to live a normal life with responsibilities in the parish or schools,” he said. They suffer from a psychiatric illness, not “a sin” that one can choose not to commit.
On October 2, CNN reported that Iran had launched nearly 200 missiles toward Israel in what Tehran said was a response to the killing of Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and others, just hours after Israel said it had launched a “limited and localised” ground operation against the Iran-backed group in Lebanon.
The Israeli Defense Forces said it intercepted many of the missiles, although some landed on the ground in Israel and the occupied West Bank.
