DHAKA: Pope Francis has claimed that Communists are closet Christians, who have appropriated the Gospel’s central message of poverty.

The leader of the Catholic Church, whose uninhibited criticisms of capitalism have seen him labelled a Marxist, said in an interview published on Sunday that communists had ‘stolen’ the flag of Christianity.

The 77-year-old pontiff spoke to Rome’s local newspaper, Il Messaggero, to mark the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul, reports The Times of India.

He said, ‘I can only say that the communists have stolen our flag. The flag of the poor is Christian. Poverty is at the centre of the Gospel’.

He made the comments after being asked about a blog post in the Economist magazine that said he sounded like a Leninist when he criticised capitalism and called for radical economic reform.

Citing Biblical passages about the need to help the poor, the sick and the needy, the Pope said, ‘Communists say that all this is communism. Sure, twenty centuries later. So when they speak, one can say to them: but then you are Christian’.

BDST: 2126 HRS, JUNE 30, 2014