Pope Leo heads to swanky Monaco with pro-poor message

Pope Leo on Saturday denounced the widening gap between the haves and have-nots as he visited Monaco, a millionaires’ playground that is the surprise pick for the first Western European trip of his papacy.Arriving by helicopter from Rome, the Pope was greeted by Monaco’s ruler Prince Albert II and his wife Princess Charlene at Monte Carlo’s heliport under radiant sunshine.Just after his arrival at the tiny principality on the French Riviera, Leo condemned what he termed the widening “chasms between the poor and the rich”.In an address in French from the balcony of the Prince’s Palace, the American Pope denounced “unjust configurations of power, structures of sin that dig chasms between poor and rich, between the privileged and the rejected, between friends and enemy”.He added wealth should serve “law and justice, especially at a historical moment when displays of force and the logic of omnipotence wound the world and jeopardise peace”, in a clear reference to the growing number of conflicts across the globe.Prince Albert II of Monaco and Princess Charlene of Monaco welcome Pope Leo on the tarmac of Monaco Heliport in Monte Carlo. Photo: APBells pealed across the principality to mark Leo’s arrival in the mini state nestled on the Mediterranean between France and Italy.