Pope Francis, in Nagasaki, urges world leaders to renounce nukes

Tokyo: Pope Francis on Sunday strongly condemned the use of nuclear weapons and an increase in global arms trade as he paid tribute to the victims of the atomic bomb attack in Nagasaki.
The Pope also called on world leaders to instead use money and resources to cope with environmental issues and poverty that affect millions of people worldwide who are “living in inhumane conditions”, The Japan Times reported.
“Peace and international stability are incompatible with attempts to build upon the fear of mutual destruction or the threat of total annihilation,” the Pope told scores of people who had gathered to hear him speak amid a light rain at the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park, Ground Zero of the second of the two atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan by the United States in 1945.
“In a world where millions of children and families live in inhumane conditions, the money that is squandered and the fortunes made through the manufacture, upgrading, maintenance and sale of ever more destructive weapons, are an affront crying out to heaven,” the Pope was quoted as saying.
Later in the day, the 82-year-old Argentine, who is currently on a four-day visit to the Asian country, also visited Hiroshima where he delivered another speech denouncing the use of nuclear weapons.
The Pope also paid tribute to the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing, which is believed to have killed some 140,000 locals by the end of the same year. The city’s population was estimated at 350,000 at the time.