Pope Francis has warned that the world is on the verge of a nuclear war, similar to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. The head of the Vatican made this statement yesterday during an international conference in Oslo on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the papal encyclical published by Pope John XXIII, "Pacem in Terris".
In his message, according to Vatican News, the Pope said that the conference is taking place "while our world continues to be under the pressure of the third world war, which is gradually developing and in the tragic case of the conflict in Ukraine, where the threat of using of nuclear weapons".
He drew a comparison between the current situation and the time leading up to the publication of Pacem in Terris, when the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962 brought the world dangerously close to nuclear destruction.
Urging the conference to focus on the sections of "Pacem in Terris" dealing with disarmament and ways to achieve lasting peace, the Pope said "a world without nuclear weapons is possible and necessary".
He also recalled his statement from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in 2019, when he said that "the use of atomic energy for war purposes is immoral, just as the possession of nuclear weapons is immoral." Regarding conventional weapons, he said that they "should only be used for defensive purposes and not directed at civilian targets".