Cardinal Parolin: 'War benefits no one'

By Vatican News

At his weekly Angelus prayer on Sunday, Pope Francis restated his impassioned plea for world peace, referring especially to Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan, and Myanmar.

His appeal was echoed in Assisi, where Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin presided at a solemn concelebration for the day’s feast of Saint Clare, in the basilica dedicated to her.

“From Assisi, I want to launch a strong appeal for peace throughout the world,“ he said. “As the Holy Father has reiterated several times, war is a defeat for everyone and benefits no one.”

Attending the celebration were Bishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi, the Poor Clares, the Franciscans, religious men and women, civil and military authorities and thousands of faithful.

Concern for latest developments of war in Ukraine

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the event, the Vatican Secretary of State, who went on a mission to Ukraine in July visiting Kyiv, Odessa and Lviv, commented on the recent incursions of the⁣ Ukrainian army in the western Russian border region of Kursk, expressing concern that that the offensive could further escalate the war.

“These are very worrying developments, because it means opening new fronts,” he said. “In this sense, the chances for peace could become increasingly distant.”

Cardinal Parolin also spoke about war in his homily, in which he underlined the need for love "in a world increasingly lacking in love and which at the same time hungers for love.”

The example of Saint Clare

Continuing his reflection, Cardinal Parolin pointed to St. Clare’s radical choice of poverty, as an example for our consumeristic society, marked by the “unbridled pursuit of satisfaction of needs induced by advertising and social emulation.”

This way of life, he remarked, inevitably results “in waste of economic resources, pollution, and hedonism, which identifies pleasure as the supreme good and the exclusive purpose of life."

Cardinal Parolin underscored this point when speaking with journalists before the liturgy, saying we should learn today to detach ourselves of material goods but, most importantly, “of our selfishness, our personal convictions and pretensions to open up to others with a fraternal and peaceful approach as St. Claire and St. Francis did.”