Conflict in Ukraine: Discreet Roman Mediation

The head of Vatican diplomacy had dour look on March 9, 2022. Barely out of the Angelicum, where he has just given a conference to Catholic parliamentarians, in the front row of which was Matteo Salvini, Cardinal Pietro Parolin told the Italian press about his concerns regarding the situation in Ukraine.

The Holy See's Secretary of State half-acknowledged the current diplomatic deadlock: “To negotiate and reach an agreement, there needs to be an openness on the part of the parties involved, but if everyone remains anchored to their positions, there will be nothing to do, and the war will become deadlier than ever, with the possibility of a more general conflagration. I hope it won't come to that,” the Cardinal explained.

Their fears were not really allayed by the phone call made the day before between Bishop Parolin and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. “Sergey Lavrov listened to me, and naturally argued his point of view, and we left it at that, but it's not as if he had given me any guarantees,” he said.

Moscow's objective, as mentioned during the interview with the senior Russian diplomat, is to “guarantee the security of Russia, because everything that has happened in recent years would endanger the security of his country,” stressed the cardinal who deplores the fact that military intervention has degenerated into “total war.” He also made a point of condemning the bombardment of the Mariupol hospital, which occurred the same day.

From the side of the Holy See, “it was important to repeat the Pope's appeal to the Russian Embassy to the Holy See last week and on other occasions, so that we might put an end to this war,” said Cardinal Parolin, who has defended the measured position of the Vatican since the beginning of the conflict.