There is a vast, transversal area that goes from left to right, passing through the Catholic church. The message is clear: “Stop the War”. A conflict – the one between Russia and Ukraine – in the heart of Europe which has created disorder within the coalitions themselves. Because two different souls coexist in the Democratic Party, as well as in the Brothers of Italy or in Matteo Salvini’s League. The hyper-Atlantist one that sees a possible peace table with suspicion unless it is an unconditional surrender of Vladimir Putin and another that instead looks to other possibilities.
The idea of an Italy, but even more of a Europe that mediates peace, is in the minds of some political exponents and also, indeed above all, of those who move outside the palaces of politics – associations and movements – and perhaps today have the freer hands.
In St. Peter’s Square today for Pope Francis’ Angelus was Gianni Alemanno, former mayor of Rome, former minister, and historical exponent of the Italian right. Today, as spokesman for the “Stopping the War” committee, he is pursuing a policy of peace that has alienated him from the Brothers of Italy. «We came to St. Peter’s Square for Pope Francis’ Angelus with a banner with the inscription ‘Christmas truce in Ukraine’. We did it to thank the Holy Father who is the only authoritative voice that has been raised in the world to stop the war in Ukraine”, explains Alemanno to The print while walking in the square together with the young people of the Magnitudo Italia Association.
“The proposal for a European peace conference, the Helsinki model, put forward by Cardinal Parolin is the only realistic initiative to reach a ceasefire, stop the escalation of the conflict and open a negotiating table – he adds -. With a collection of signatures today throughout Italy we ask the Government to launch the idea of a Christmas truce: there is still a week to hope». This from the right. But things are also moving on the left.
Last November, 11 and 12 to be exact, a conference for peace was organized at La Sapienza University «against war and for a multipolar world, in a new and future humanity of peace and solidarity». It was organized by the Marxist, as he likes to be defined, Luciano Vasapollo, founder of the “anthropological economics school” at the Faculty of Arts and historical consultant of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, for the economic policy of the Cuban and Venezuelan governments (commitments which for Vasapollo still continue today) and a Vatican expert and now a professor at the same university, Salvatore Izzo.
Also on that occasion the church was present: among the guests, in fact, there was Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio. “Every war also represents the death of truth. Guns are silent: God is the source of peace. God never leads to war», explained Cardinal Coccopalmerio who was present together, among others, with former parliamentarian Raniero La Valle, historic director of Avvenire d’Italia, and Mario Marazziti, spokesman for the Community of Sant’Egidio for many years . Before that event it was still the pacifist ‘right’ part that organized the conference ‘E Pace sia’, told by The printin which the former mayor of Alemanno and Vittorio Sgarbi had taken part, among others.
The binomial, here too, is always the same: politics – albeit with different colors – and the Catholic world who take the field side by side for peace. A good superior to the others. And, again at La Sapienza at the invitation of Vasapollo and Izzo, the president of the CEI Matteo Zuppi showed up. “The Christian is a man of peace, not a man at peace. He does not give up resisting, he chooses another way of resisting, which may seem extremely foolish, if one forgets or does not take enough account of the horrendous cost of war, which does not even guarantee the defense of what we want to defend with it”. said Zuppi answering with the words of don Primo Mazzolari to the questions of the students of the degree course in Tourism Sciences of the Faculty of Letters of Sapienza.
Connected online with room 105 of the Marco Polo Center, a branch of the Faculty, the president of the CEI spoke with 140 students of the courses belonging to the «school of anthropological economics» of professor Vasapollo, illustrating the extraordinary topicality of Mazzolari’s warning « You do not kill», because, as the parish priest of Bozzolo used to say, «war is a waste of resources, of goods, of human lives».
The ‘No War’ line, increasingly present on the right and on the left, is therefore supported by a good part of the church. However, it is not a question of a position of assent to Putin or the desire for a surrender of the Ukrainian people. “Non-violence should not be confused with non-resistance. Non-violence is like saying: no to violence. It is an active rejection of evil, not a passive acceptance. Laziness, indifference, neutrality have nothing to do with it. The nonviolent, in its refusal to defend itself, is always brave. Non-violence is an act of trust in man and faith in God; it is a testimony given to the truth up to the conversion of the enemy», Zuppi explained to the students a few days ago. There is therefore a rejection of war and weapons that goes far beyond any possible political manipulation of the affair.