(OSV News) — From unilateral actions in Venezuela to continued violence in Iran, the world is steadily sliding into a “crisis of values” that risks sparking international war, the Vatican’s top diplomat warned.
Speaking to journalists outside Rome’s Domus Mariae Church Jan. 17, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, lamented the decline of diplomacy and confirmed a Washington Post report that the Holy See tried and failed to broker a peaceful transition in Venezuela.
Wanted agreement to ‘avoid bloodshed’
“We had tried to find a solution that would avoid any bloodshed, perhaps by reaching an agreement also with Maduro and with the other representatives of the regime, but this was not possible,” Cardinal Parolin said, according to the Italian newspaper Il Corriere Della Sera.
The Washington Post reported that Cardinal Parolin met on Christmas Eve with Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, to inform U.S. officials that Russia was willing to grant asylum to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in an attempt to avoid bloodshed in Venezuela.
Ultimately, the U.S. carried out a military operation in the early morning hours of Jan. 3, resulting in the capture of Maduro and his wife, and transporting them to New York to face narco-terrorism conspiracy charges.
Economic situation ‘very precarious’
After confirming the report, Cardinal Parolin said he hoped that the current situation “evolves toward stability, toward economic recovery — because the economic situation is truly very, very precarious — and also toward a democratization of the country.”
Il Corriere Della Sera reported that before celebrating Mass Jan. 17, the Vatican secretary of state delivered a lecture at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, the institution that trains priests for service in the diplomatic corps and the Secretariat of State.
In his lecture, Cardinal Parolin warned of a “crisis of multipolarism” that “disregards the values upon which the community of nations was gradually built.
Violations of sovereignty
“Conscience and reason can no longer tolerate violations of sovereignty in their most diverse forms, the forced displacement of entire peoples, the change in the ethnic composition of territories, the subtraction of means necessary for economic activity, or the limitation of freedoms,” the cardinal said.
Responding to a question regarding U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to acquire Greenland, Cardinal Parolin recalled his lecture and told journalists that solutions based on force “cannot be used.”
He also warned that the “spirit of multilateralism that characterized the post-war years” was “being lost.”
‘Will lead increasingly to conflict’
“This is not acceptable, and will lead increasingly to conflict, to a war within the international community,” he said.
Cardinal Parolin also expressed his concern over the “endless tragedy” in Iran where a crackdown on anti-government protests resulted in the deaths of thousands of people.
“I ask myself how it is possible to rage against one’s own people, that there have been so many deaths — it is an endless tragedy,” the cardinal said.
The Vatican secretary of state emphasized the Holy See’s consistent call for diplomatic solutions instead of resorting to armed conflict and expressed his hope “that we can reach a resolution to this state of affairs.”
Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. Follow him on X @jae_journalist.
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