Pope Leo slams widening ‘chasms between the poor and the rich’ on Monaco visit
Monaco is one of the few places in Europe where Catholicism remains the state religion
Arriving by helicopter from Rome, the Pope was greeted by Monaco’s ruler Prince Albert II and his wife Princess Charlene at Monte Carlo’s heliport under radiant sunshine.
Just after his arrival at the tiny principality on the French Riviera, Leo condemned what he termed the widening “chasms between the poor and the rich”.
In an address in French from the balcony of the Prince’s Palace, the American Pope denounced “unjust configurations of power, structures of sin that dig chasms between poor and rich, between the privileged and the rejected, between friends and enemy”.
He added wealth should serve “law and justice, especially at a historical moment when displays of force and the logic of omnipotence wound the world and jeopardise peace”, in a clear reference to the growing number of conflicts across the globe.
Bells pealed across the principality to mark Leo’s arrival in the mini state nestled on the Mediterranean between France and Italy.