Pope Francis has drawn the world attention to racism and exclusion in any form as ‘twin sin,’ harping on the essence for people to desist from them.
Francis, in the world in his Twitter handle, said he views with “great concern” the social unrest sweeping the United States, calling racism intolerable and the recent violence “self-destructive and self-defeating.”
“My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form,” he tweeted at the Vatican in Rome on Wednesday.
The leader of the Catholic Church said he would pray for George Floyd and all those who had lost their lives as a result of “the sin of racism” and urged Americans to move toward “national reconciliation and peace.”
Meanwhile, Heiko Maas, the Germany’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, warned Wednesday that “threatening with violence only triggers further violence,” in a series of tweets with the hashtag BlackLivesMatter.
Maas also warned that “democrats must never escalate — not even with words.”
In a separate tweet posted on the German Foreign Office Twitter feed, Maas called George Floyd’s death “gruesome” and “shocking,” and said the protests were “understandable and legitimate.”
He also stressed that “journalists must be able to carry out their reporting duties without jeopardizing their security.” On Tuesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said that at least 125 press freedom violations were reported by journalists across the U.S. between Friday and Monday.
