The Vatican City State Secretary talks with journalist Ignazio Ingaro at Tg1 regarding the magisterium regarding peace for the new Blessed John Paul I, regarding the ongoing war and the threat of nuclear catastrophe.
The journalist Ignazio Ingaro of Tg1 gave an interview with the Secretary of State of the Vatican, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, which was broadcast on Thursday evening during the newscasts. .
In his answer to a question regarding Pope John Paul I’s words “we want peace” for a world still marked by wars and regarding the Church’s rejection of all forms of violence from wherever it comes, Cardinal Parolin said I also want to mention at the beginning this point from Pope John Paul I’s message to the city of Rome and the world It is one of the six points on which John Paul I began his pontificate. I read: “We want to promote all initiatives that can protect and increase peace in a troubled world.” This interest in peace was one of the central themes of his short pontificate, and is linked in particular to the events of Camp David, and thus to the search for peace between Jews and Palestinians, between Israel and Palestine. There were various initiatives of Pope Luciani, among them in particular the Angelus of September 10, 1978, in which the Pope recalled what happened at Camp David and in particular the fact that leaders called for prayer: thus not only to act but also to entrust this commitment for peace to the Lord . It was one of the distinguishing points of his pontificate. He spoke regarding this to the diplomatic corps a few days ago, saying that the Church does not have tangible solutions to propose, but it has a spirit that can transmit it, and in the light of which it can solve the major problems facing the world today. I would like to conclude this point with the words of Pope Francis in his introduction to the pontificate documents of Pope Luciani, who said that John Paul I showed how dear peace is to the Church.
Answering a question regarding Pope John Paul I’s closeness to the poor and the last and his immediate mission to put the poor at the center in a world marked by increasing inequality, continued the Vatican City State Secretary, I remember what the Patriarch of Venice said, when they asked him if there was still a memory of Patriarch Luciani in Venice. Because those years were marked by many tensions: the post-Vatican Council years, and Pope Luciani found himself in the midst of all this situation, but the Patriarch said: Most of the people who remember him are the simple ones. To accurately express one of Pope Luciani’s main characteristics: being a close shepherd and attentive to the concrete needs of people, perhaps to his past, and perhaps also to the environment of life in which he grew up, an environment marked by poverty, distress, and emigration. He was truly a Pontiff who was devoted to the poor and wanted a poor church to serve the poor, not only a personal service of love but also a global service of love. In this, Pope Luciani was inspired by the magisterium of Pope Montini, and in particular by the Encyclical Populorum Progressio.
Cardinal Parolin added, answering a question regarding whether Blessed John Paul I was a model of humility for pastors and for all Christians. Yes, we have a great need for humility in our world. It is the main virtue. He used to say: What is the shepherd’s first virtue? humility. And the second? humility. And the third? humility. The fourth is humility. Surely this was its main advantage. From a personal point of view, he lived this virtue to the fullest, and chose it as his motto, referring to the humility of Saint Augustine and Saint Carlo Borromeo. I would like to quote two phrases in this connection: one by Cardinal Ratzinger at the time who stated that Pope Luciani had never sought prominent positions in the Church and when this happened – he also said it in relation to the papacy: “I did not expect it” – he always lived it as a service. And then Benedict XVI when he said that humility is the spiritual legacy that John Paul I left to the world.
I was a young man, I was twenty-three years old, still a seminarian and had never met Pope Luciani, continued the Vatican City State Secretary. But I remember the surprise in particular: This was the number I lived with his election, because no one expected a pope to be elected in 26 hours when the predictions said it would take who knows how much time and how much suffering. And then, of course, I was surprised by the news of his death. I remember saying, “Didn’t the Pope just die? But it was John Paul I who left us.”
Cardinal Parolin, answering a question regarding the Church’s exact position on the war in Ukraine and regarding his vision of what is happening as the Vatican City State Secretary, added, “I look with great concern because this war has been going on for a very long time, six months have passed since this conflict began with all the horrors that followed This war: And now the last Holy See, very powerful adjectives are used to describe it, and I think it also reflects my personal attitude and the attitude and feeling of the entire Holy See, starting with the Holy Father. There is great concern regarding the lack of possibilities and possibilities for a solution through negotiations. This is what makes us more anxious. But we remain ready and prepared, in the sense that we do not close the door to anyone, and we seek to offer all concerned the possibility of finding a neutral ground on which to meet and search for a solution that would be, as Pope John Paul I said regarding the Camp David Accords, a “just and complete solution.” Any solution is just in the sense that it satisfies everyone’s requirements and is complete, that is, it solves all problems in a way that does not lead to new problems and new conflicts.
Cardinal Parolin, answering a question regarding the presence of IAEA inspectors in Zaporizhia at the present time and thus regarding widespread concern regarding a nuclear disaster, concluded that the appeal was that any escalation should be avoided, especially with regard to the use of nuclear weapons, with knowledge of the consequences we might face. If there is a wrong step in this direction. The appeal is always the same: a call to wisdom and moderation, and to the search for peaceful solutions. I would like to repeat what the Popes have said, what Pope Pius XII said and repeated by all Popes: “Nothing is lost with peace, but everything is lost with war and we experience it.”