by Gian Guido Vecchi
The words of the President of Ukraine and Francis: «I understand that you want peace, I understand that you want to defend yourself». Asked for mediation by the Vatican, Cardinal Parolin said: “There is no alternative to negotiations. The alternative is the dead
VATICAN CITY “Today I spoke to His Holiness Pope Francis and he said very important words. I understand that you want peace, I understand that you must defend yourselves, defend the military, civilized people defend their homeland, everyone defends it…». The verdict is reported by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at the beginning of his speech on video link this morning in the plenary hall, the Vatican limited itself to “confirming the call” without adding or specifying anything. But these words: “I understand that you must defend yourself,” recall what Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Pope’s secretary of state, told the Spanish Catholic weekly Vida Nueva last week in response to a question about the Russian invasion of arms never desirable, because there is always a very high risk of killing people or causing serious injury and terrible property damage. However, the right to defend one’s life, one’s people and one’s country sometimes includes the sad recourse to arms. Furthermore, in the Catechism, number 2263 we read that “the legitimate defense of persons and societies is no exception to the prohibition of killing the innocent, killing consists of voluntary murder, and number 2265 adds: “Legitimate defense can, besides a right, also be a heavy duty for those responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that the unjust aggressor be rendered harmless. As such, the legitimate authorities have the right to use weapons to ward off the attackers of civil society entrusted to them.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Francis’ interventions have gradually become more explicit. In last Sunday’s Angelus, he condemned “the violent aggression against Ukraine, a senseless massacre in which devastation and atrocities are repeated every day” to the point where he spoke of “an inhuman and sacrilegious cruelty”. An image that actually seems to fall within the principle of legitimate defense, considering that Francis immediately clarified that “the perverse and diabolical logic of arms is the furthest thing from the will of God,” and spelled it out again on Monday to one Association to obtain the Volunteer Service: “Certain choices are not neutral: allocating a large part of spending on armaments means taking it away for something else, which means taking it back from those who lack what is necessary … We must die create awareness that you keep spending money on dirty guns, dirty the soul, dirty the heart, dirty humanity”. The Pope, Zelenskyy said, reiterated that he was doing “everything possible to end the war.” Certainly the “main way” for Francis is negotiation, Selenskyj himself asked him to mediate, the Vatican repeated that he could be reached at any time and the Pope marked it on Sunday: “There is no justification for any of this! I appeal to all actors in the international community to make a real effort to end this heinous war ». The President of Ukraine reiterated in the phone call that “His Holiness is the most awaited guest in Ukraine and reiterated the invitation to go to Kyiv, which the capital’s mayor Vitaly Klyčko addressed to him in a letter . On that occasion, he replied to the mayor, reaffirming his closeness “to the sufferings of the city, to its people, to those who have had to flee it and to those who have been called to manage it”. At least for the moment there is no trip to Kyiv in the Vatican, but a trip to Malta on April 2nd and 3rd. But Francis is unpredictable and Cardinal Parolin himself is not unbalanced: «In Kyiv? I can’t say, they say they can guarantee security and I know that President Macron will go too, maybe Johnson too… ». Now it is a question of “ending the war and then being able to start negotiations,” says the Vatican Secretary of State: “We have said it many times, the Holy Father has just said it, and I repeat it too: there is always the possibility to find a solution and a solution that is honorable for everyone, good will is enough, i believe that in this case a lot of good will is needed. There are no alternatives to negotiation. The alternative is war, the alternative is violence, the alternative is the dead ».
March 22, 2022 (Change March 22, 2022 | 19:20)
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