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Pope Francis waves as he arrives at the Santa Maria Ausiliatrice Basilica, in Turin, Italy, Sunday, June 21, 2015. Pope Francis earlier prayed in front of the Holy Shroud, the 14 foot-long linen revered by some as the burial cloth of Jesus, on display at the Cathedral of Turin. He also addressed the issue of those who profit from the arms industry in informal remarks to a large audience of young people.

(ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO)

Does Pope Francis believe working in the arms industry is incompatible with being Christian?

Apparently he does, or so it seems from his remarks to a large crowd of young people in the Italian city of Turin.

According to Reuters, the pope made impromptu remarks on the subject of war and trust following a prepared address there on Monday.

"If you trust only men you have lost," Francis is reported to have said.

"It makes me think of ... people, managers, businessmen who call themselves Christian and they manufacture weapons. That leads to a bit a distrust, doesn't it?"

In regarded to those who invest in the weapons industry, Francis is quoted as saying that "duplicity is the currency of today ... they say one thing and do another."

Francis' campaign against a world at war has been a theme of his papacy, but his June 21 remarks seem to further fine tune his target. A year ago, he spoke about the profits made by arms manufacturers and how they contrast with children displaced by war.

"Think of the starving children in the refugee camps. Just think of them: this is fruit of war!" the National Catholic Reporter quoted Francis.

"And if you want, think of the great dining halls, of the parties thrown by the bosses of the weapons industry that makes the arms that wind up (in those camps). A sick child, starving, in a refugee camp -- and the great parties, the fine life for those who manufacture weapons."

Morality and the killing machinery of war have been tackled before by members of the Church hierarchy. The U.S. Catholic Bishops' 1983 pastoral letter, "The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response," (pdf) addressed the issue of nuclear arms.

"The whole world must summon the moral courage and technical means to say no to nuclear conflict; no to weapons of mass destruction; no to an arms race which robs the poor and the vulnerable; and no to the moral danger of a nuclear age which places before humankind indefensible choices of constant terror or surrender," the document reads.

"Peacemaking is not an optional commitment. It is a requirement of our faith. We are called to be peacemakers, not by some movement of the moment but by our Lord Jesus. The content and context of our peacemaking is set not by some political agenda or ideological program, but by the teaching of his Church."

The 78-year-old Francis became pope in March 2013, and what he says in and outside the Vatican is widely reported by the press. He is scheduled to visit the United States in September, and to speak before a joint session of the U.S. Congress, as well as to address the United Nations.

His focus on social and economic equality are themes he brought to the papacy as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires. They are embedded in "Evangelii Gaudium" ("The Joy of the Gospel"), the first major writing of his papacy, in which he stresses that Christian life needs to be infused by a Gospel that "invites us to respond to the God of love who saves us, to see God in others and to go forth from ourselves to seek the good of others."

The November 2013 documented emphasizes the need for Christians to step away from a world of consumerism and violence fueled by inequality and work for a just and peaceful society.

"Small yet strong in the love of God, like Saint Francis of Assisi, all of us, as Christians, are called to watch over and protect the fragile world in which we live, and all its peoples," writes Francis, referencing his papal namesake in that document.