VATICAN CITY (RNS) — On Palm Sunday, Pope Francis once again expressed his closeness to the “martyred” country of Ukraine, while also praying for the victims of the “vile terrorist attack” in Moscow on Friday that left 139 people dead and many more wounded.
As many Christians draw closer to Easter, Pope Francis and the Vatican continue their efforts to reach out to both parties in the Russian and Ukrainian war. For the pope, there are no good guys and bad guys in today’s polarized wars, and achieving peace takes precedence over overarching ideologies.
“Pope Francis tells us that when we attempt to enter into dialogue we need to avoid preconceived assumptions of good versus bad and instead try to start from zero with no set conditions,” said Victor Gaetan, author of “God’s Diplomats: Pope Francis, Vatican Diplomacy and America’s Armageddon,” speaking to Religion News Service on Tuesday (March 26).
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The pope’s vision is enshrined in his 2013 document “The Joy of the Gospel,” where he stated that “reality is greater than ideas.” Behind this cryptic statement lies the pontiff’s belief that the concrete suffering of innocents during times of war is more important than the ideologies underlying the conflict.
Representing the pope’s diplomatic approach on the ground is Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who was appointed by Francis to lead the Vatican’s peace mission in Ukraine. An experienced peacemaker, Zuppi has taken on the seemingly impossible effort of promoting dialogue among two countries marked by reciprocal animosity.
“We must do everything from a humanitarian perspective, especially for the children, and work on every front to promote negotiations,” Zuppi said during a Rome news conference to present his new book, “God Doesn’t Leave Us Alone: Reflections of a Christian in a World in Crisis,” on March 20.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi meets with Patriarch Kirill at the Patriarchal Residence in Danilov Monastery, in Moscow, June 29, 2023. (Photo by Moscow Patriarchate)
In his book, the cardinal points to two crises tearing at humanity: inequality and war. Zuppi especially points to “forever wars,” meaning conflicts that continue for decades without any path toward a resolution. The wars in Ukraine and in the Holy Land are examples of these never-ending wars, Zuppi said.
“There seems to be a fascination, an attraction toward war, even though we are children of a generation that experienced peace,” Zuppi said. “If peace today only becomes a truce, it means we haven’t learned anything from a generation of men and women who preceded us,” he added.
The head of the Catholic lay movement St. Egidio, Andrea Riccardi, praised Zuppi as “a man of peace but without the ingenuousness of the pacifist.” St. Egidio has become the de facto arm of Vatican diplomacy under Pope Francis, capable of acting effectively in peacemaking and building humanitarian corridors for migrants.
Riccardi pushed back against some critics who claim the Vatican’s peace mission in Ukraine has failed, after two years of war and without a peaceful way out of the conflict in sight. “Tell me who has had success and which countries?” he said, pointing to the failed attempts by Turkey and China.
“Keeping the bridges of dialogue open is already a road to peace,” Riccardi added.
