The Vatican praised President Barack Obama’s proposals for curbing gun violence on Saturday, saying they are a “step in a right direction.”
The Vatican’s chief spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Saturday that 47 religious leaders have appealed to members of the U.S. Congress “to limit firearms that are making society pay an unacceptable price in terms of massacres and senseless deaths.”
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Considering that Americans possess “about 300 million firearms,” Lombardi said, “people cannot fool themselves that it is enough to limit the number and use (of guns) to impede in the future horrendous massacres like that of Newtown that shook the conscience of America and world, as well as that of children and adults. “
He was referring to the Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school where 20 children and six adults were killed by a sole attacker last month.
“But it would be worse to be satisfied with words” of condemnation alone, Lombardi said. And while massacres are “carried out by unbalanced or hate-driven persons, there is no doubt that they are carried out with firearms,” the Vatican spokesman said.
