Archbishop Gallagher: Holy See's diplomacy never takes sides but always works for peace

By Tiziana Campisi 

A city that "through its more than two millennia of history" has matured "a particular sensitivity for peace," "learning to settle disagreements emerging from cultural, linguistic and ethnic differences."

This is how Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Vatican Secretary for Relations with States and International Organisations, described Aquileia, on 12 July, in the small Friuli Venezia Giulia municipality, where he delivered a keynote lecture for the liturgical commemoration of Saints Ermagora and Fortunato, martyrs from Aquileia and patrons of the archdiocese of Gorizia and Triveneto.

Today's conflicts

In his Lectio Magistralis titled  "Aquileia Magistra Pacis - A counterpoint to the diplomacy of the Holy See," the Vatican diplomat reiterated that the Holy See's diplomacy is  strongly committed to putting an end to "ongoing conflicts," from Ukraine to Palestine, Israel, Azerbaijan, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen.

Archbishop Gallagher made it clear that the Holy See "always mobilises itself as a subject super partes," seeking to "unite divergent ideas, opposing political positions, religious visions" and "different ideologies," promoting peace in "respect for international norms" and fundamental human rights.

He recalled  that it is also  active on the humanitarian level, for example in working "to facilitate the repatriation of Ukrainian children and the exchange of prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as to encourage the release of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip."

A city at the crossroads of people and ideas

In the lecture  Archbishop Gallagher reknotted, from the present day to the past,  the threads of history starting with the foundation of Aquileia in 181 BC.

Even then, he said, the city distinguished itself "as an extraordinary cosmopolitan crossroads of peoples and ideas" and facilitated "the diffusion of artistic, cultural and cultic influences."

He noted that they were "reworked and readapted" to its own context, adding that even in the Christian era the city distinguished itself for "its extraordinary vocation for the concord of peoples."

Archbishop Gallagher observed that from Aquileia, among other things, Christianity spread "to neighbouring lands, gradually coming into contact with heterogeneous peoples and cultures," bringing them together and bearing fruit "in every field of thought, spirituality and art."

All this, he marvelled, has generated "a spirit of welcome and coexistence," the "art of dialogue and confrontation" and the "ability to make the most of stimuli from outside."

The spirit of Aquileia and Vatican diplomacy

"The long history of coexistence, encounter and dialogue of this border area, despite the deep wounds inflicted in people's hearts by the drifts of exasperated nationalisms," he said, is a "mature example of universal fraternity."

The Secretary for Relations with States, remarked that Europe today “should continue to draw inspiration from Aquileia in order to sow peace with patience and trust."

Archbishop Gallagher then shifted his gaze "to the current international context," where, "in the face of violence and the rampant recourse to arms as a means of resolving disputes, diplomacies are struggling to fulfil their traditional task of mediation," often relating to the facts, but without having worked on the causes or those "cultural, social, ethnic and religious situations" that generate conflict.

Accompanying those who yearn for peace

In such a scenario, "the diplomacy of the Pope, while presenting itself as a reality structured according to the norms of international law, acts as a moral force devoid of geopolitical ambitions, careful not to pander to partisan interests," explained Archbishop Gallagher.

It is also not indifferent "to the expectations and concrete needs of people, to the desperate cry of the fragile and the rejected", he added, of which it becomes "the voice and echo."

Therefore, the Holy See's interest is to accompany all those who yearn for peace and seek reconciliation. For this reason "the distinctive features of the spirit of Aquileia" can be found "in the attitude of the papal diplomat to favour dialogue with all," underlined the Secretary for Relations with States, "including those interlocutors considered inconvenient or not legitimised to negotiate," or “in his propensity to use humility and patience to the utmost to untie seemingly inextricable knots."

In practice, he continued, the Holy See's diplomatic activity,, on the one hand "intervenes to ensure the freedom of the Church" and, on the other hand, "proposes to collaborate with States and international Organisations in the solution of the great problems of humanity" working to safeguard fundamental human rights, "for the affirmation of the highest moral and social values."

Diplomatic relations with the countries of the former Yugoslav Republic

Regarding "Aquileia’s lesson" to cultivate respect for autonomy and "different ethnic groups", Archbishop Gallagher evoked "the Holy See's support for the process of integration of the Western Balkans into the European Union," at the basis of which there is "the extension and relaxation of diplomatic relations" following the fall of the Berlin Wall, and which led to the "development of concordat activity in countries where the change in the political system had led to a different attitude towards religion and the Catholic Church."

The Vatican diplomat cited the Agreements signed since 1996 with the majority of the States born from the dissolution of the former Yugoslav Republic, describing them as "authoritative instruments of response to the ethnic and confessional antagonisms dramatically produced by a myopic conception of nationality."

He pointed out that Pope Francis' Apostolic jouneys to Albania in 2014, to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2015, and to Bulgaria and North Macedonia in 2019, "have further strengthened the Holy See's closeness and support to the collaboration and exchanges of those countries with Europe," as well as his official visits to the capitals "to foster fraternal coexistence between ethnic groups and religions, in distinction and mutual respect."

Migration along the Western Balkans route

Finally, said the Secretary for Relations with States, that openness and welcome "of different peoples and cultures" that distinguished Aquileia, spurs us to reflect on the migration crisis along the Western Balkans route". It invites us to reflect on the thousands of people "trying to cross borders" fleeing persecution, wars, conflicts or misery and find new opportunities for existence or a safe haven" in the face of whom alls are being built and no effort is being made to consider the opportunities that migration can offer "in view of the growth of more inclusive societies".

He recalled that the Holy See proposes to governments and civil society to welcome, protect, promote and integrate foreigners, and this, the prelate concluded, requires the involvement of "all the actors involved, including religious communities".

Personalities devoted to dialogue and mediation

Archbishop Gallagher remembered how "the spirit of Aquileia" has forged "personalities devoted to encounter, dialogue and mediation," among them "brilliant clergymen originally from Friuli Venezia Giulia" who have served the Holy See in different parts of the world.

He made a special mention of Monsignor Luigi Faidutti and Archbishop Antonino Zecchini, who lived between the 19th and 20th centuries "in the complex religious and political panorama of the newly-born Baltic Republics," and also of Cardinal Celso Costantini, "whose remarkable diplomatic skills made him a patient weaver of relations between the Holy See and China", and of Cardinal Guido Del Mestri, who contributed "to the so-called Vatican Ostpolitik."

These figures, Archbishop Gallagher noted, "allow us to grasp the consonances between the heritage of aggregating peoples that can be traced back to the spirit of Aquileia and the traits of the Holy See's diplomacy."

This diplomacy, he said, is called to ensure in  various contexts  that there is "a communion of differences", "defusing contentions and weaving concord", in the "conviction that closure and isolation produce asphyxiated societies, incapable of breathing the oxygen of dialogue and encounter that are a solid basis for authentic peace building."