Pope Francis has warned religious leaders from a variety of faiths that religion can't be used to justify the "evil" of war, a thinly veiled criticism of Russia's Orthodox Church, which has supported President Vladimir Putin during his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking at the Seventh Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan on September 14, Francis challenged those in the room to unite in condemning war and the religious justifications for it.
"God is peace. He guides us always in the way of peace, never that of war," Francis, who did not mention Russia or Ukraine specifically, said in an opening address.
Patriarch Kirill, who has voiced support for Putin and the invasion, was supposed to attend the conference, but backed out just ahead of it. A Russian Orthodox Church delegation, however, is attending the event.
"If the creator, to whom we have devoted our lives, is the author of human life, how can we who call ourselves believers consent to the destruction of that life?” Francis, who earlier this year warned Kirill against becoming Putin's "altar boy," asked.
"May we never justify violence. May we never allow the sacred to be exploited by the profane. The sacred must never be a prop for power, nor power a prop for the sacred!" the pontiff said.
Kirill did send a message to the congress, which was read out at the meeting, where he warned of problems caused by "attempts to build a world without relying on moral values."
He has criticized the West's secular mentality, and says the conflict in Ukraine was sown by foreign threats to Russia's borders, while depicting the conflict as a struggle against a foreign liberal establishment purportedly demanding countries hold "gay parades" as the price of admission to a world of excess consumption and freedom.
"These attempts have led not only to the loss of the concept of justice in international relations, but also to brutal confrontation, military conflicts, the spread of terrorism and extremism in different parts of the world," Kirill said in his message.
The congress in Nur-Sultan brings together Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and other faiths among the 100 delegations present to discuss the role of religion in the development of humanity in the modern world..