On Saturday Pope Francis said that he is ashamed of the term "mother of all bombs" which is the name Americans gave to the bomb recently launched on the mountainous base of the Islamic State in Afghanistan.
"I am ashamed they called it "the mother of all the bombs" because the mother gives life, and that bomb is a death," said the Pope. "They call this device a "mother." What is going on?" said the Argentinean Pope in conversation with the young participants of the "School of Peace" program, which is run with the support of the Italian Ministry of State Education.
Christianity does not build walls
The most powerful American Non-Nuclear Bomb, the GBU-43 / B, named the "Mother of all bombs," destroyed the IS network in East Afghanistan on 13 April and killed at least 36 Jihadist fighters. President Donald Trump called that achievement a "new success."
During the US election campaign last year, Pope Francis and Donald Trump expressed a number of deep differences. In February 2016, Pope said that a "Christian is a person who wants to build bridges, not walls." Following this statement, Trump reacted furiously, saying that it is a "disgrace that a religious official brings into question someone's faith."
Donald Trump will meet with Pope Francis on May 24 in the Vatican.
Trump will arrive in Rome early for the NATO summit and ahead of a visit to Sicily where he will attend the G7 summit of the world's most developed countries. Then he will travel to the Middle East.
Trip to the Middle East
Trump also said that this month he would travel to Saudi Arabia and Israel as part of his first foreign trip, which directly entails a complex political situation in the Middle East.
In a speech at a White House ceremony devoted to religious freedoms, Trump said that the purpose of this trip was to strengthen co-operation and support among Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the fight against terrorism. "Our task is not dictating to others how to live but to build a coalition of friends and partners whose common goal is to fight terrorism and create security and stability in the war-affected Middle East," Trump said.
Trump's forerunner Barack Obama had tense relations with Israel and with Saudi Arabia, whose leaders thought he was less interested in traditional alliances and more in talks about the Iranian nuclear program. Trump put the peace of the Middle East and a fight against the Islamic state at the center of his foreign policy.