Cardinal Parolin: No peace without dialogue

By Paolo Ondarza

"While I reaffirm the inalienable right to self-defense, war is always a failure of humanity as a whole and not just of the individual parties involved."

All wars are in contradiction with human dignity and "are not destined by their nature to solve problems, but rather to exacerbate them."

The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, opened Rome’s ‘Peace Table’ in Rome with these considerations.

With him this morning, May 10th, were about 30 Nobel Peace Prize laureates including Rigoberta Menchù Tum from Guatemala, Dmitrij Muratov from Russia, Tawakkol Karman from Yemen, as well as figures like Machel Mandela, widow of Nelson Mandela, and NASA administrator Bill Nelson.

The event kicks off the #BeHuman campaign, the second World Meeting on Human Fraternity, organized Friday and Saturday by the "Fratelli Tutti Foundation". It consists of twelve thematic tables open to the public and some streamed live, with the participation of scientists, economists, doctors, managers, athletes, and ordinary citizens, all coming together to seek alternatives to war and poverty, inspired by the principle of fraternity.

War offends against human dignity

"God created men to live in peace and to protect Creation, not to destroy it."

War, Cardinal Parolin emphasises, in striking against human dignity and positioning itself diametrically opposed to Creation, "not only attacks the dignity of others, but also one's own dignity."

Reconsidering the concept of "just war"

According to the Secretary of State, today the very concept of "just war" needs to be questioned, as it "originated in an era when conflicts had relatively limited scope. In the contemporary era, with the advent of nuclear and mass destruction weapons, this theory presents itself as highly problematic."

The conference

Let diplomacy prevail over arms

In his greeting address, the cardinal referred to the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee promulgated yesterday by Pope Francis, and emphasizes how without dialogue, not only is peace not built, but war is triggered, replacing the voice of diplomacy with that of arms.

The Cardinal then mentioned the three areas of commitment identified by the Pope: addressing the causes of injustices, rectifying inequitable and insurmountable debts, and satisfying the hungry.

Poverty, a great injustice in today’s world

"Liberation from injustice promotes freedom and human dignity," and it is fundamental, according to the Cardinal, to protect “social justice, especially in the current context where the value of the person is seriously threatened by the widespread tendency to rely exclusively on the criteria of utility and possession."

The absence of social justice, Cardinal Parolin stresses, is the premise of poverty, "one of the greatest injustices of the contemporary world" where "those who possess much are relatively few and those who possess almost nothing are many."

This leads to a "lack of education, which often leads to adhering to extremism and fundamentalism."

Debt and fraternity

 In addition to the poverty of individuals, Cardinal Parolin mentioned that of countries that "cannot keep pace with foreign debt".

"While reaffirming the principle that contracted debt must be honored," according to Cardinal Parolin, it is necessary "not to compromise the fundamental right of peoples to subsistence and progress," rediscovering fraternity among nations.