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After Pope Francis’ words on Ukraine and the courage of the “white flag” which have provoked controversy and reactions from chancelleries around the world, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, intervenes: «The Pontiff’s appeal is that “the conditions are created for a diplomatic solution in search of a just and lasting peace”. In this sense it is obvious that the creation of such conditions is not just up to one of the parties, but rather to both, and the first condition seems to me to be precisely that of putting an end to the aggression”.
Parolin thus intervenes with an interview with Corriere della Sera, after the evening of Monday 11 March Kiev announced that it had summoned the nuncio for clarification while even German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, received by Francis about ten days ago, said he did not share Bergoglio’s appeal to what appeared to international observers almost to be a call to surrender towards Moscow.
«We must never forget the context», specifies Parolin, «and, in this case, the question that was addressed to the Pope, who, in response, spoke about negotiation and, in particular, about the courage of negotiation, which it is never a surrender. The Holy See pursues this line and continues to ask for a “ceasefire”, and the aggressors should first of all cease fire, and then the opening of negotiations. The Pope explains that negotiating is not weakness, but strength. It’s not surrender, but it’s courage. And he tells us that we must have a greater regard for human life, for the hundreds of thousands of human lives that have been sacrificed in this war in the heart of Europe. These are words that are valid for Ukraine as well as for the Holy Land and for the other conflicts that are bloodying the world.”
When asked whether there is still the possibility of reaching a diplomatic solution, Parolin, who is also in all respects the head of mission of the humanitarian initiative undertaken by the cardinal and president of the CEI, Matteo Zuppi, replies: «These are decisions that depend by human will, the possibility of arriving at a diplomatic solution always remains. The war unleashed against Ukraine is not the effect of an uncontrollable natural disaster but of human freedom alone, and the same human will that caused this tragedy also has the possibility and responsibility to take steps to put an end to it.”