Pope Francis warns global leaders against using religion as prop for power

Pope Francis has cautioned world leaders against the use of religion as a prop for power.

Pope Francis was speaking on Wednesday in Kazakhstan during an inter-faith meeting, where he went to start his Apostolic journey.

He said the world must never allow the exploitation of the sacred by the profane.

"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," Pope Francis said.

This comes a day after the Pope appealed for peace and a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Pope Francis urged the world's people to ensure that God is not held hostage to the human greed for power while minding past transgressions.

He cautioned against notions that desecrate God’s name by actions that are not godly.

"Let us free ourselves of those reductive and destructive notions that offend the name of God by harshness, extremism and forms of fundamentalism, and profane it through hatred, fanaticism, and terrorism," he said.

Pope Francis prayed for people to use dialogue and patient negotiations to resolve conflicts and not through violence.

“Let us commit ourselves, then, even more to insisting on the need for resolving conflicts not by the inconclusive means of power, with arms and threats, but by the only means blessed by heaven and worthy of man: encounter, dialogue, and patient negotiations, which make progress especially when they take into consideration the young and future generations,” the Pope said.

“For the young embody the hope that peace will come about, not as the fragile outcome of painstaking negotiations, but as the fruit of persevering commitment to an education that can support their aspirations for development and a serene future.”