Pope Francis has slammed "deviant forms of religion" following deadly attacks by Islamist militants in France last week and dubbed the "never-ending spread of conflicts" around the world a third world war.
"Losing their freedom, people become enslaved, whether to the latest fads, or to power, money, or even deviant forms of religion," he said, laying the blame on "a culture of rejection" which leads to "the breakdown of society and spawning violence and death".
"We see painful evidence of this in the events reported daily in the news, not least the tragic slayings which took place in Paris a few days ago," he said in his yearly speech to the members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See.
The 78-year-old was speaking after France's bloodiest attacks in half a century, which left 17 people dead.
He pointed to "chilling repercussions" from conflicts in the Middle East and "the spread of fundamentalist terrorism in Syria and Iraq".
"Religious fundamentalism, even before it eliminates human beings by perpetrating horrendous killings, eliminates God himself, turning him into a mere ideological pretext," he said.
Not for the first time, Francis called for "a unanimous response... within the framework of international law" to the so-called Islamic State and also urged the Muslim community to "condemn all fundamentalist and extremist interpretations of religion."
The Pope has spoken before about the spread of conflicts around the globe being effectively a sort of third world war, and in this speech, known as his "State of the World" address, he repeated the claim of "a true world war fought piecemeal".
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