Vatican's Cardinal Parolin Appeals for Peace and says “peace could become increasingly distant” with Ukraine's Attack within Russia
Attending the celebration were Bishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi, the Poor Clares, the Franciscans, religious men and women, civil and military authorities and thousands of faithful.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the event, the Vatican Secretary of State, who went on a mission to Ukraine in July visiting Kyiv, Odessa and Lviv, commented on the recent incursions of the Ukrainian army in the western Russian border region of Kursk, expressing concern that that the offensive could further escalate the war.
“These are very worrying developments, because it means opening new fronts,” he said. “In this sense, the chances for peace could become increasingly distant.” Cardinal Parolin also spoke about war in his homily, in which he underlined the need for love "in a world increasingly lacking in love and which at the same time hungers for love.”
Continuing his reflection, Cardinal Parolin pointed to St. Clare’s radical choice of poverty, as an example for our consumeristic society, marked by the “unbridled pursuit of satisfaction of needs induced by advertising and social emulation.” This way of life, he remarked, inevitably results “in waste of economic resources, pollution, and hedonism, which identifies pleasure as the supreme good and the exclusive purpose of life."
Cardinal Parolin underscored this point when speaking with journalists before the liturgy, saying we should learn today to detach ourselves of material goods but, most importantly, “of our selfishness, our personal convictions and pretensions to open up to others with a fraternal and peaceful approach as St. Claire and St. Francis did.”
Source: Vatican News
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