Vatican City, Apr 19, 2016 / 23:03 pm
Terrorism in the name of religion is a lie, the head of the Holy See's mission to the United Nations said last week.
"In the Middle East, in particular, terrorists must never be allowed to destroy centuries of peaceful co-existence of Muslims and Christians in the region," Archbishop Bernardito Auza said at the United Nations April 14.
The archbishop, who is the apostolic nuncio leading the Holy See's Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations, spoke in the U.N. Security Council's open debate on threats to international peace and security.
Archbishop Auza said terrorist groups which claim to kill in the name of religion show "mendacity and blasphemy" that must be denounced "in the strongest possible terms." Religious leaders particularly have a grave responsibility to condemn those who seek to instrumentalize religion for violent and oppressive ends, he said.