Francis is not above acting on his own as peacemaker. At the outset of the war in Ukraine, he raced to the Russian Embassy in a Vatican vehicle to demand the invasion be called off, and later intervened to free prisoners, including members of the Azov Brigade, by speaking directly with the Russian ambassador. The pope has repeatedly expressed his willingness to go to Russia but said that the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, replied that a visit is “not necessary.”
For more than a century, the Vatican’s diplomatic stance has been never to take sides, even remaining officially neutral during World War II in what critics say was more about self-preservation than offering a channel for mediation. (Pope Francis himself has released voluminous records to clarify the role of the papacy during the war.)
But Zuppi, a close collaborator of the pontiff, said Francis’ position is not one of simple neutrality. Rather, he looks at the roots of violence and seeks “to avoid the polarization that often feeds the conflict.”
Francis has vigorously maintained this evenhanded posture in the face of severe criticism. When Russia invaded Ukraine last year, he refused to call out Russian President Vladimir Putin as the aggressor. After the attack by Hamas, the Israeli Embassy to the Holy See urged the Vatican to avoid “linguistic ambiguities” and clearly condemn the terrorists.
In both cases, the pope eventually agreed to lay blame but made his focus the victims of war, regardless of their origin.
Rather than condemn either side forcefully in recent conflicts, Francis relies on local churchmen in both conflicts who don’t mince words in calling out atrocities or their perpetrators. Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv has been relentless in identifying war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine and demanding a just peace in the region.
In the Holy Land, Pizzaballa has been firm in demanding the protection of human rights for innocent Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. In a statement on Tuesday (Oct. 31), Pizzaballa castigated Israel for damaging 19 houses of worship in Gaza that were providing basic services and shelter for many.
“Such attacks on civilians, particularly children, and the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure, cannot be justified on rational or humanitarian grounds and are fundamentally at odds with even the most basic moral values,” the patriarch’s statement read.
Papal Diplomats’ Role in Global Peace Efforts
Francis has long believed that a third world war has already started but is being “fought piecemeal” in several areas around the world. Speaking to the Italian news channel TG1 on Wednesday, the pope said the wars in Ukraine and Gaza simply represent this global conflict’s inching closer to the West.
“But there are many other wars that don’t touch us: Kivu, Yemen, the Rohingya in Myanmar, who are martyrs,” Francis said. “The world is at war, but behind it there is the arms industry,” he added, pointing the finger to a world driven by profit instead of peace.
Francis admitted to TG1 that, without paths for dialogue, “the war in the Holy Land scares me,” and talked about his concerns for an escalation of the conflict.
“The time is very dark,” he said. “We can’t seem to find the ability to think clearly, and I will add that it’s a further defeat. It’s been this way since the last world war, from 1945 until now, one defeat after the other because wars never stopped.”
This article originally appeared here.
