Citing the disastrous results of Western intervention in Libya and Iraq, Pope Francis said that “we must not export our democracy to other countries, but help them to develop a process of democratic maturation according to their characteristics.”
The Pope’s remarks were published by the Italian daily La Stampa, in excerpts from a new book, You Are Not Alone, for which the Pontiff was interviewed by Italian journalists.
The Pope said that in both Libya and Iraq, the death of a dictator led to “organized anarchy and other war.” The US intervention in Iraq, he was, was “a real disgrace.” He said: “Saddam Hussein was certainly not a little angel; on the contrary. But Iraq was a fairly stable country.”