During a seminar held at the Pontifical Angelicum University in Rome on March 9, 2022, the Pope’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, declared the bombing of a children’s hospital in Mariupol “unacceptable.” The high prelate deplores the escalation of the conflict to what he now considers a “total war.”
The Holy See’s “number 2” commented on the Russian airstrike that, according to the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, destroyed a Marioupol hospital with maternity and pediatric services, killing and injuring several children and pregnant women. He said there were “no valid reasons” for such an action.
Questioned by journalists, the Secretary of State also returned to the telephone discussion he had on March 8 with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. He said he had received “no assurance” of the establishment of humanitarian corridors from his Russian counterpart.
No meeting with Kirill for the moment
Cardinal Parolin also put in doubt a possible meeting between the Pontiff and Patriarch Kirill in the current context, reports the ANSA news agency.
The Russian ambassador to the Holy See suggested on February 18 that Moscow was considering organizing the second meeting of the two men – after the historic one in Cuba in 2016 – this June or July.
Kirill’s words risk “inflaming spirits”
Asked about the possibility of such a meeting, Cardinal Parolin said that “for the moment there is no possibility.” He said the current situation is “very complicated” due to the existing tensions “between the Churches,” the Italian agency reported.
Referring to recent statements of the Russian religious leader – in which he presented the current war as a defense against a lack of values in the West – Cardinal Parolin said that they risked “further inflaming spirits and leading to an escalation that will not allow the crisis to be resolved peacefully.”
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