Pope Francis calls out the $400 billion global arms business as “the industry of death”

Pope Francis was sharply critical of the global arms industry in a speech at the Vatican this week, telling thousands of children in Rome that weapons manufacturers are money-hungry opponents of peace. Some people don’t want peace because they make more money from war, he said. The devil, he added, enters through the people's wallets. The arms industry, which had sales of at least $400 billion in 2013, is dominated by US and European firms, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, not to forget China’s mostly state-owned arms manufacturers. Pope Francis has spoken before against weapons and their impact on war, tweeting in 2013 that he condemned the use of chemical weapons.