Cardinal Parolin: Farmers must be listened to; dialogue is needed

By Vatican News

Protestors “must be listened to; there must be a dialogue, an openness to dialogue with a view to the sustainability of small and medium-sized businesses and a future for rural areas,” said Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, in response to questions from reporters about the ongoing demonstrations in Italy and throughout Europe against high production costs.

“The obligation is that the person must always be put at the center of everything,” the Cardinal said, “so that they are safeguarded in their dignity and can genuinely express the best proposals.”

Cardinal Parolin spoke to journalists on the sidelines of a conference at the Italian Embassy to the Holy See for the 40th anniversary of the Concordat signed in 1984 by then-Prime Minister Bettino Craxi and Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli.

The Agreement, said Cardinal Parolin, “is not something of the past but also has a projection into the future”; that is, it concerns an understanding about the possibility of considering “what points can be further developed today,” going beyond what was stipulated forty years ago.

Thursday’s conference also included the presentation of a Declaration of Intent between Italy and the Holy See on the new headquarters of the Bambino Gesù Hospital. “On the Italian side and on the part of the Holy See, requests on this operation will be outlined,” the Cardinal explained.

Cardinal Parolin focused instead on the conflict in the Middle East, where a truce and an agreement for the return of hostages still held by Hamas seem increasingly distant.

“There are ongoing negotiations,” he explained. “Of course, it doesn’t look like hopes are materializing—these hopes that are opening up now and then. But we are hopeful that slowly we can come to an agreement and a solution with the release of the hostages, a cease-fire, and then the beginning of negotiations for a definitive resolution of the problem.”