Parolin: Peace in Ukraine “moving in the wrong direction”

“Unfortunately, it seems to me that we are moving in the opposite direction: there is an escalation, while the prospects for peace remain nonexistent,” the cardinal told journalists at the presentation of Antonio Preziosi’s book Easter of Peace: From John XXIII to Leo XIV Towards the Jubilee of 2033, held at Palazzo Borromeo, the seat of the Italian Embassy to the Holy See.

His remarks came days after what observers described as one of the most intense Russian missile and drone attacks of the entire conflict, striking Ukrainian cities over the weekend. Cardinal Parolin said the assessment had been confirmed by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, who had recently returned from a six-day mission to Ukraine.

As reported by COPE, the cardinal expressed similar concern about Iran, where a recent agreement with the United States has broken down. “I don’t know how this matter will end; I think few people do — perhaps no one,” he said, recalling that there had been hope the signed agreement could hold. He expressed the desire that negotiations resume in order to reach a lasting agreement, “for the good of the country and also for the good of the world,” since “these situations put peace at risk.”

On Gaza, where reports have emerged that the Italian military is constructing a barrier in the Strip, Cardinal Parolin reiterated the Holy See’s position with characteristic brevity: “We can sum it up in a slogan: no to walls, yes to bridges.” The phrase reflects the Vatican’s broader approach to conflict — one that Pope Leo XIV reinforced during his visit to Lampedusa earlier this month and at the closing of the Extraordinary Consistory in June, when he adopted as his own the cardinals’ unanimous appeal: “God continues to open paths of reconciliation and peace in history. We have the responsibility to walk them with courage.”

Cardinal Parolin also commented on the unrest that erupted in the Italian city of Bologna following the death of Abderrahim Fakir, a 42-year-old Moroccan man who died during a police detention on Sunday. The incident, widely circulated on social media, has prompted diplomatic tensions between Italy and Morocco and drawn international scrutiny to Italian law enforcement. “I simply hope that the truth can be established,” he said, stressing that the necessary investigations should be carried out “in a climate of calm, certainly without violence.” “Violence is never productive,” he added.

The cardinal’s remarks across four separate conflicts — Ukraine, Iran, Gaza, and Bologna — paint a consistent picture of a Holy See increasingly concerned that the world’s flashpoints are multiplying faster than the instruments of diplomacy can address them. Cardinal Parolin renewed his call for peace and dialogue amid continued fighting in Ukraine and the Iran war, criticized the construction of a barrier in Gaza, and appealed for calm in Bologna — all in the space of a single press encounter.

The book whose presentation provided the occasion for his remarks — Easter of Peace: From John XXIII to Leo XIV Towards the Jubilee of 2033 — is itself a reminder of how long the Holy See’s commitment to peacemaking predates the current conflicts. John XXIII's 1963 encyclical Pacem in Terris, written in the shadow of the Cuban Missile Crisis and addressed not only to Catholics but to “all people of good will,” remains the foundational document of modern Catholic peace teaching. Six decades later, its opening conviction — that peace among nations must be founded on truth, justice, charity, and freedom — has lost none of its urgency.