“A lay State is a good thing; it is better than a confessional State, because confessional States end badly. But laity is one thing, laicism is quite a another”, as the latter “closes the doors to transcendence, to double transcendence: transcendence to others and above all transcendence to God”. This was stated by the Pope in an interview with the Belgian Catholic weekly “Tertio”, to mark the end of the special Jubilee of Mercy. In the text, in Spanish, Francesco insists that “no religion as such can foment war. War cannot be made in any religion. And therefore terrorism, war, are unrelated to religion. Religion is twisted to justify them”. “All religions have fundamentalist groups. All of them. So have we. And from there they destroy, prompted by their fundamentalism. But they are small religious groups that have ‘spoilt’ their religion”, points out Francis, who, quoting his two speeches in Strasbourg, warns: “No war ever again! We are at war. The world is engaged in the third world war: Ukraine, the Middle East, Africa, Yemen… ‘No war ever again!’, we say that with our mouths but in the meantime we manufacture weapons, and we sell them: and we sell them to those who fight”. “Europe needs leaders”, Francis insists.